Egyptian pharmacists call for boycotting US products
Egypt-Palestine, Politics, 4/9/2002

In a national rally, organised by the Pharmacists' Association on Sunday night, angry Egyptians demanded severing all contact with Israel and expelling Tel Aviv's ambassador from Cairo. They also vowed "to offer every possible assistance to the besieged Palestinians currently resisting savage Israeli attacks on Arab cities," the opposition Al-Ahrar newspaper reported yesterday.

Thousands of demonstrators attended the "Together For Palestine" rally demanding that Arab governments should declare jihad (holy war) on Israel in order to stop "Sharon's massacre of our Palestinian brothers and sisters", the paper added.

The demonstrators also called for an immediate boycott of all American goods, as well as a halt to the export of Egyptian oil to Israel, it said.

Dr Zakareya Gad, the association's chairman, told the rally that Egyptian pharmacists fully backed the Palestinian intifada (uprising) and rejected all the aggressive policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom he had described "a bloodthirsty terrorist".

In his fiery speech, Gad urged the participants to boycott all products bearing a "Made-in-US" label on the pretext that the Bush Administration was providing Israel with the arms it is using to annihilate the Palestinian people and occupy their cities.

"Boycotting all American goods constitutes the first step on the road to supporting the Palestinians in their war against Israel," Gad said. He described the US as "the axis of evil" that supports Israeli terror and aggression against the Arabs.

"The Arabs," he said, "should not stand idle against the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. Arab Muslims and Christians should fight and resist the Israeli forces of occupation until their Palestinian brothers have had their legitimate rights restored and have established an independent state."

Dr Gouda Abdul Khaliq, economics professor at Cairo University, told the rally that Arab leaders should allow people to join their Palestinian brothers in the battle against the Israeli enemy.

He also called on workers at Egyptian harbours to stop loading and unloading American ships and oil tankers "because they enrich the Israeli enemy's economy".

Abdul Khaliq said that the US's unjustified and blind support of Israel would threaten American interests in the Middle East, whose people were completely disillusioned by the biased stance of the Bush Administration concerning the current crisis.

Ibrahim el-Zaafrani, another speaker, said that the Arabs had the choice of two ways of dealing with the lamentable on-going situation in the Middle East.

"Either we (the Arabs) fight Israeli now, or wait until the Zionist enemy exterminates the Palestinian people; then it will come to obliterate us," el-Zaafrani told the rally.

"To die on the battlefield is more honorable than living with the shame and humiliation of seeing our Palestinian brothers being massacred at the hands of the Israelis," he said.

"If Arab political leaderships offer this issue up to a public referendum they will find that the people do not want to live in humiliation," he added.

Dr Sherif Wali, a Shura Council member, told the rally that Egyptians oppose all forms of normalisation with Israel and want the Tel Aviv ambassador expelled from Cairo.

Wali recommended that Arabs should boycott all American goods and use oil as a weapon to compel the US to pressure Israel into withdrawing its army from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Previous Stories:
  Al-Baz: Israeli operations went beyond all limits   (4/8/2002)
  Mubarak warns of dangerous risks to int'l peace   (4/5/2002)
  Mubarak asks the government to prepare necessary aid for Palestinians   (4/3/2002)

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