Boycotting Israel was never about Palestinians–it was about Jews

This weekend, the UAE announced that it will no longer adhere to the Arab League boycott of Israel.

AP reported:

Saturday's announcement formally eliminates a 1972 law on the UAE's books, since just after the Emirates's formation.

That law mirrored the widely held stance by Arab nations at that time that recognition of Israel would only come after the Palestinians had an independent state of their own.

NPR similarly reported:

The decree formally ends a 1972 law establishing a boycott, a common policy towards Israel in the Arab world for its treatment of Palestinians.

This is historical revisionism.

The original text of the 1945 Arab League boycott resolution stated:

Products of Palestinian Jews are to be considered undesirable in Arab countries. They should be prohibited and refused as long as their production in Palestine might lead to the realization of Zionist political aims.

The only use of the word “Palestinian” was referring to the Jews who were being boycotted!

When the boycott was announced, not one Arab stated that they were concerned with the rights of Arabs in Palestine. From the New York Times, December 4, 1945:

 

And when Arabs gathered in British Mandate Palestine to deepen the boycott, its antisemitic nature was made even more explicit (January 10, 1946):

 

The boycott was always a purely antisemitic idea, and it remains so. Which makes Hanan Ashrawi’s shocked reaction to the UAE move quite interesting: