Britain Ends Processing of Documents on Behalf of the Arab Boycott Office

The British Foreign Office today finally stopped its controversial practice of processing documents on behalf of the Arab Boycott Office.

The documents are part of the procedure for approving trade deals with Britain. At least three Arab countries — Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia — insist on signatures on these documents being authenticated by the Foreign Office. The certificates confirm that goods being sold to the Arab world do not originate in Israel or contravene the boycott rules in other ways.

The decision to end this cooperation by the Foreign Office was apparently taken on the instructions of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after being told of Israel’s long-standing annoyance about it by visiting Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

The British decision is seen as a gesture of goodwill toward Israel and a reflection of the good impression made by Peres on Thatcher and other British leaders.

ARAB BOYCOTT WON’T WEAKEN

Although the step was today warmly praised by United Kingdom-Israeli trade circles, there is no chance of it weakening the influence of the Arab boycott over British business and industry as a whole. Authentication of the certificates formerly processed by the Foreign Office will simply be practiced by the British-Arab Chamber of Commerce in London and equivalent bodies in Arab capitals.

Britain is also maintaining two other restrictions on trade with Israel. Arms supplies to Israel are still frozen, under the embargo introduced when Israel invaded Lebanon. Despite the present world oil glut, Britain also refuses to sell North Sea oil to Israel under a policy originally introduced because of the 1979 world oil shortage.

Only a few days before Peres arrived in London, a leading British oil company refused to supply one million barrels of crude on the grounds that the would-be purchaser was acting for Israel. Nevertheless, UK-Israeli trade is running at record levels.