The Arab Boycott Office announcement yesterday that Volkswagen may be removed from the Arab blacklist because it has given “satisfactory” evidence of boycotting Israel was today termed by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith “a typical Arab ploy.”
According to Seymour Graubard, ADL chairman, Volkswagen, one of the largest car-selling agencies in Israel, never violated Arab boycott regulations which prohibit such things as partner- ships, plants and patents in Israel, but not sales in that country of finished products manufactured outside.
An ADL investigation of the announcement in Cairo by Arab Boycott commissioner Mohammed Mahgoub revealed that VW is continuing to sell its cars in Israel, Graubard said. This is what the VW public relations director at the company’s headquarters in Wolfburg, West Germany, said in a telephone conversation today with Arnold Forster, ADL associate director and general counsel.
The VW official told Forster that the company is negotiating with the Arab Boycott Office with the obvious purpose of getting itself removed from the blacklist but refused to comment further.
CITES COMMON PRACTICE
Forster said that Audi, a VW subsidiary, had licensed production in Israel of the Wankel rotary engine before Audi was purchased by VW. That license is still in effect and is being implemented by an Israeli company which is manufacturing the engine, Forster said. “But neither this relationship nor the sale of Volkswagens in Israel is in violation of Arab boycott regulations.” Forster asserted.
Pointing out that the Arab boycott is “a political and a propaganda instrument in addition to being an economic weapon,” Forster said that “Arab boycott office pronouncements about-adding or dropping names from the blacklist should never be accepted at face value.” He said it was common practice to add a company name to precipitate public denial about doing business in Israel from a company which had never done business in Israel. He added it was also common practice for names to be dropped from the boycott list simply to embarrass a company that is not cooperative.
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