Saudi Arabia and Syria have drawn up a list of 98 German firms to be boycotted by the Arabs in retaliation for the West German Government’s implementation of the reparations agreement with Israel, the most widely-read German news magazine, “Dr Spiegel,” reported today. Since no orders have yet been placed with German firms by the Israeli purchasing mission here, the Arab move is seen as a naked attempt to intimidate German businessmen.
A spokesman for the Israeli mission declared today that the publication of such a blacklist is “one of the usual maneuvers” of the Arab states. He pointed out that few of the listed firms have any trade relations with the Arab states and in the instances where the firms do have business in the Arab states the boycott cannot be enforced. At any rate, he reported, some 6,500 German firms have already offered to sell Israel products to be shipped as reparations.
The list seems to have been drafted by picking German firms at random, with a portion being firms mentioned in the news columns of the German-language Jewish press. This may be the reason that no states other than Saudi Arabia and Syria–the most persistent proponents of a boycott–have so far associated themselves with the blacklist.
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