Marks and Spencer department stores and Selfridges department store are undeterred by the news that they are to be picketed by patrols trying to enforce a boycott by Arabs because of their Jewish ownership and connections with Israel.
The Arab boycott conference meeting at Aleih, near Beirut, yesterday decided to keep a close watch on Arab visitors abroad. Observers of dif- ferent Arab nationalities “who can discreetly spot their countrymen” will be posted in front of or inside “blacklisted” stores in Britain and other parts of Europe.
A spokesman for Marks and, Spencer said of being mentioned in the boycott: “We have no comment.” Selfridges (a huge Oxford Street store) said: “There is nothing very much we can do about people standing outside the store. Inside we have some jurisdiction and our own security staff. It would depend very much on what the ‘watchers’ did.”
Meanwhile, the British Leyland Motor Corporation, Britain’s largest car manufacturer, hopes that it will be removed from the boycott, especially following the announcement over the weekend that Iraq has placed a twelve and a half million pound sterling order for buses from the company.
The Arab League conference is reviewing methods of tightening the boycott which seeks to prevent firms from having any transactions with Israel.
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