Monday, August 24, 2009

Say "no" to the boycott

Of the Swedish furniture retailer IKEA.

According to Haaretz, on Sunday alone over 4,600 Israelis signed an online petition to boycott IKEA in the wake of a controversial article published in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet that suggested that Israeli soldiers "harvested" the organs of Palestinians (more on which in an upcoming post).

Let's see: in a number of countries, certain people (myself not included, for the record) are refusing to buy Israeli goods on the grounds that Israel's army killed 1,300 people, including 3oo children, in Gaza. The idea being that hitting the country's economy might pressure the Israeli citizenry into telling their government not to kill Palestinians so liberally.

Zionists have called this boycott antisemitic.

The logic behind the boycott of IKEA is somewhat more difficult to grasp.
Newspapers, as different from armies, don't represent whole countries. And there's no business link between the furniture chain and the evening daily. Hitting one will have no effect on the other. The only reason IKEA is targetted is because it's a Swedish company and they're doing business in Israel. I.e., a logic that all Swedes are responsible for all other Swedes' individual behavior is being applied.

Of course, Zionists will now furiously publish posts on their blogs to slam this boycott calling it what it is: anti-Sweditic.

Of course.

8 comments:

Gert said...

Anti-Sweditic, LOL!

I think IKEA should claim it's a Swedish Meat Balls libel... (the best selling item in IKEA's cafeterias, yum yum...)

Seriously, this is so petty: let them first of all prove the Aftonbladet's allegations are wrong. And punishing one company for the alleged wrongdoing of another is crazy...

Folderol said...

I agree with your post, boycott of Ikea and Sweden are just stupid. But I think you are generalising 'Zionists' here, 4,600 Zionist are not equal to all..

Mustafa

al-Khanzir said...

Their loss.... where else are they gonna get stylish flat-pack furniture from?

Anonymous said...

Ikea's Headquarters are in Holland. Its a dutch company. They choose the country for its low taxes.

Folderol said...

Hey Ibrahim, you might be interested in this: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3767145,00.html

Anonymous said...

Folderol-
I liked this quote. I didn't know Gazans were such Feinschmeckers.

Anonymous said...

scandinavians know it best. gaza war crimes were ugly and someone must be held responsible for it!

Anonymous said...

I for one am going to try to pay a little more attention to the stuff I buy and avoid when possible Israeli products...