Not only has the Palestine-Israel conflict served as a major political distraction for Muslims, as it is preventing them from understanding the big political picture that our Ummah is going through, it is also being used to cover up bitter facts about the global economy.
Some Muslims suggest that we should boycott Israeli products, such as dates, in order to harm it economically in the hope that the Israeli government will change its policies and agendas towards Palestinians. Definitely, this whole idea of boycott is based on wrong assumptions even if there might be some seemingly effects.
First, the idea of boycott is based on the assumption that there is such a thing called national economy, that countries operate independently in terms of economic production. This is completely wrong and childish to believe. Officially, we live under a global economy. The global economy resembles the economy of a single country, where decisions are made according to a global economic plan and everything is operated globally. Therefore, whether Muslims boycott Israeli dates or not, it does not matter because the same dates can be shipped to Iran, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or some other Arab countries and packaged under their country’s name.
This leads us to the second wrong assumption, that countries are real entities. There are still stupid Muslims who believe that countries are real entities, that Israel cannot ship its dates or other products to a Muslim country because – because what? We know all too well that every single country was formed by the British Empire, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the UAE, Iran etc., and all other countries, yet we still somehow believe that they are independent units.
In my view, the primary purpose of this idea to boycott Israeli products is not to harm Israel, but to convince people that countries exist, that they are independent, that the global economy is not a monopoly.
It is much more effective in terms of propaganda and communication to convince the Arab people that countries are independent by giving them the impression that they have the ability to boycott products than telling them directly that, “your country is independent.”
This is the reason why there are American states that have passed laws in order to prevent this idea of boycott. Apparently, many Muslims think that Israel is so afraid of being harmed by the BDS movement that it is pushing on the American states to address this problem legally.
It is a very smart propaganda because it makes Arabs, Muslims, Israelis, and Americans believe that countries exist, so they have the ability to harm the economies of each other if they want. This couldn’t be more wrong.
Countries are merely restrictive administrative units of the same British Empire and we live under a global economy, which is a planned economy. Boycott has no meaning as if we try to put imaginary borders on the ocean.
Sabri Lushi
