They can agree but they sure can’t implement:
Steven Spielberg was blacklisted by the Arab League’s Central Boycott Office after making a $1m (£645m) donation to Isreal during the 2006 conflict in Lebanon.
A US embassy memo released by WikiLeaks reveals that during a meeting of the group in April 2007, diplomats or representatives from 14 Arab states voted to ban all films and other products related to Spielberg or his Righteous Persons Foundation.
Apparently, Muhammad al-Ajami, the head of the Syrian regional office for the boycott of Israel informed the US diplomatic mission in Damascus that 14 Arab countries had agreed to the boycott: Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Malaysia, Pakistan and Iran also attended the meeting and agreed to do the same. Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania did not attend (since they’ve all signed peace treaties with Israel).
So let’s take a look at movies produced or directed by Steven Spielberg since 2007:
- Disturbia
- Transformers
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Eagle Eye
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- The Lovely Bones
- True Grit
- Hereafter
Other than the fact that most of these movies have been beamed into our homes via OSN, I don’t believe the boycott stuck.
A WikiLeaks cable reveals that Steven Spielberg and his Righteous Persons Foundation were the target of an Arab League boycott. Photograph: Vera Anderson/Vera Anderson/WireImage.com
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