Lebanese BDS symposium to feature launch of Israel boycott app

During the symposium, the treaty of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel will be displayed, and a new smartphone application to boycott products of pro-Israel companies will be launched.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN
Updated: MAY 16, 2016 23:54
Activists from the BDS movement against Israel [File] (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Activists from the BDS movement against Israel [File]
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The city of Beirut will host a symposium Friday on the Lebanese academic and cultural boycott of Israel, organized by the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon.
During the symposium, the agreement for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel will be displayed, and a new smartphone application to boycott the products of pro-Israel companies will be launched.
Many well-known Lebanese actors and artists, including movie star Tarek Tamim and actor/singer Jahida Wehbe, are expected to attend.
In a video posted on the campaign’s Facebook page, Tamim said: “As an artist, I can only see myself as a part of the resistance to the occupation.”
Another well-known Lebanese figure scheduled to attend the symposium, actress Nidal Ashkar, stated: “I regard the art an obligation and resistance against Israel.”
Ashkar concluded her statement by urging Lebanese citizens to boycott Israel and resist it.
Pierre Abi Saab, deputy-editor of the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, weighed in by saying: “The resistance to Israel is not only military – it is first and foremost cultural and ideological, because after you can defeat the enemy several times and put an end to its military supremacy, it will try to enter from other places.
The symposium is evidentially a momentous event for the BDS movement in Lebanon, since major local brands, such as Al-Akhbar and Al-Saffir, another pro-Hezbollah organ, are sponsoring it.