The Jewish community here has asked the Charleston County Council to deny a Kuwaiti company and its American subsidiaries permission to develop Kiawah Island off the South Carolina coast as long as Kuwait continues its blacklist and boycott of American firms.
The Council will hold a public hearing on re-zoning the island on March 24. The Community Relations Committee, an arm of the Jewish Welfare Fund, announced today that it would hold a protest rally in advance of the hearings at Marion Square in the center of downtown Charleston.
Kiawah is one of a chain of undeveloped, sparsely inhabited “sea islands” in the Atlantic south of Charleston. Last year it was purchased from its owner, a South Carolina businessman, by the Kuwait Investment Co. The latter established American subsidiaries, the Kiawah Beach Co. and Coastal Shores Inc. to develop and promote the island as an exclusive resort and residential community for wealthy Americans.
The Community Relations Committee said it will demand, as a condition of further development “that the Arab boycott and blacklist shall not be implemented or enforced in Charleston County and the United States of America and further, that in the development and management of the proposed project, the Kuwait Investment Co. and its subsidiaries shall not discriminate against American citizens on the basis of religion, race, national origin, creed or sex.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.