DOES DUBAI PORT COMPANY BOYCOTT ISRAEL?

AS YOU KNOW, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS TURNED OVER THE SECURITY OF OUR EAST COAST PORTS TO A COMPANY FROM DUBAI. THERE ARE CONFLICTING STORIES RE WHETHER THIS COMPANY PARTICIPATES IN THE ARAB BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL.

Exclusive: Dubai ports firm enforces Israel boycott. (JPost)
The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The firm, Dubai Ports World, is seeking control over six major US ports, including those in New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area.

“Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced,” Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department’s Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview. “If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem,” he said.

A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World.

Moreover, the Post found that the website for Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone Area, which is also part of the PCZC, advises importers that they will need to comply with the terms of the boycott. In a section entitled “Frequently Asked Questions”, the site lists six documents that are required in order to clear an item through the Dubai Customs Department. One of them, called a “Certificate of Origin,” “is used by customs to confirm the country of origin and needs to be seen by the office which ensures any trade boycotts are enforced,” according to the website. A-Din of the Israel boycott office confirmed that his office examines certificates of origin as a means of verifying whether a product originated in the Jewish state.

On at least three separate occasions last year, the Post has learned, companies were fined by the US government’s Office of Anti-boycott Compliance, an arm of the Commerce Department, on charges connected to boycott-related requests they had received from the Government of Dubai.

US law bars firms from complying with such requests or cooperating with attempts by Arab governments to boycott Israel.

Dubai Ports World uses Zim connection in US deal
Dubai Ports World, the combined United Emirates (UAE) port management company for the Gulf, has stepped up its challenge to win the operating rights of six major ports in the US, by claiming it has strong business ties with Israeli shipping company Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. ...

Asked in an interview last week with “CNN” reporter Wolf Blitzer whether Dubai Ports World was doing business with Israel while the UAE refused to recognize Israel, [CEO Ted] Bilkey replied, “One of our very sound customers is Zim line. It’s the largest shipping company. And the president of that company is very close to our company and supports us, because we have good relations with all of our clients.

"We handle their operations in a number of ports throughout the world because it’s good commercial business for us. They wouldn’t come to us unless we did a good job,” added Bilkey.

Blitzer: “Does the emir know this?”

Bilkey: “Absolutely.”

SEE ALSO: Arab boycott reduced to 'lip service'
The boycott established by the Arab League in 1951 to hurt Israel is a dying animal in countries aside from Syria and Iran. So while some Arab ports will still not accept goods marked "Made in Israel," if you take off the sticker and send it through another country, the deal is done. (Jerusalem Post)