#Free #Gaza Srinagar: Questioning the silence of the Muslim world over the Gaza crises wherein the death toll has reached to 1500, Kashmir’s youth in unison have started boycotting the Israeli products- stating that the action could somehow help the troubled people at Gaza. “We are just doing our bit, we don’t know whether boycotting products made in Israel would reduce the woes of the people of Palestine or not but our conscience would rebuke us if we continue to consume the items made by such a nation which is busy in slaughtering the Muslims in Palestine,” said Mohammad Aamir- who owns a business of Kashmir arts in Srinagar. The shopkeepers have admitted that the sales of certain products have gone down and that only some of their customers clearly reveal why they don’t buy a particular product. “There are several other customers and most of them are youth who give wide berth to certain products,” said Mohammad Ashraf- a shopkeeper at old city. Also the social networking sites in Kashmir are these days abuzz with the netizens making pages with the slogans inscribed ‘Boycott the Israel products’. People while uploading the pictures of Gaza carnage ask the fellow users not to buy the products that are made in Israel. The most widely Israel products that are being used in Kashmir are L’Oreal, Maybelline , Ralph Lauren, Revlon , Motorola, Nokia, Nestle, Nescafé, Milkmaid, Maggi, KitKat, Milkybar, Polo, Siemens, Timberland, Coca-Cola, Ambi Pur, Caterpillar, Evian, Barbie, GAP, Banana Republic, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Huggies. Also a separate picture of Coca- Cola is uploaded on the social networking sites with the words reading, “Don’t buy your brother’s blood.” A bar code starting with “729? indicates that the product is produced in Israel as 729 is the Israeli Bar Code Association – EAN Israel. Mohammad Haneef a civil engineer by profession told this newspaper that he along with his other colleagues has decided not to buy the Israeli made products and the same is aimed to express solidarity with the people of Palestine and slam the Muslim countries who are the mute spectators over this mayhem. “We want to tell the people of the world that despite Kashmir itself being swirled by the worst crises, it is with the people of Gaza and will be always standing against the atrocities being committed on them by the Israel.” There are also several colleges and school going students who have decided to boycott the products made in Israel. “We are doing our best to show to the world that the people of Kashmir are the people with the conscience and time demands that action from the Muslims. We will keep boycotting the products till Palestine becomes a free nation,” said Rashid Nazir, a student of B-Tech at NIT. Earlier, denouncing the Israeli attacks on Palestinian people in Gaza, Kashmiri clerics had appealed people to boycott Israeli made products in the valley. Chief cleric and chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said: “As a mark of a protest over the continuous massacre of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, there should be a complete boycott of Israeli products in Kashmir.” He said traders of Kashmir should stop buying Israeli manufactured products from other states of India. Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami, Muhammad Abdullah Wani stated there should be a sustained campaign against the use of Israel products in Kashmir. “I think we need to identify the Israel products and start a campaign against its usage in Valley. It is my humble request to Kashmiri people to stop using Israel products in solidarity with Palestinian people,” said Wani.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 15:02:05 +0000