Text 18030, 73 rader
Skriven 2006-03-01 17:58:54 av Alan Hess
Ärende: reason to dump the deal?
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Dubai participates in the Arab boycott against Israel.  
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The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

Exclusive: Dubai ports firm enforces Israel boycott
MICHAEL FREUND, THE JERUSALEM POST      Feb. 28, 2006

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.

In one instance, according to a Commerce Department press release, a New
York-based exporter agreed to pay a fine for having "failed to report in a
timely manner its receipts of requests from Dubai" to provide certification
that its products had not been made in Israel.

The proposed handover of US ports to DP World has provoked a political storm in
Washington, where Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed hostility to
the plan, citing national security concerns.

In an attempt to stave off opposition, DP World agreed over the weekend to a
highly unusual 45-day second federal investigation of potential security risks.

This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395502196&pagename=JPost%2FJPAr
ticle%2FShowFull

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