Gulf News, the leading English-language newspaper of the United Arab Emirates, reported over the weekend (Aug. 16), that dangerous contraband was confiscated and will be destroyed by Emirate security services. The offending product? Dresses bearing a six-pointed star, otherwise known as the Star of David or “Jewish Star”.
According to the newspaper, “a UAE national complained last week to the Ras Al Khaimah Municipality officials that the dress he bought for his wife had the Jewish Star of David on it.” The report states that, in fact, it was the couple’s eight-year-old son who recognized the symbol. Thereafter, the UAE consumer “took the dress to the police and filed a complaint against the owner of the shop,” Gulf News reported. The police, however, “directed him to the municipality, which is responsible for inspecting the markets.” After filing a complaint with the municipality, “[i]nspectors searched the shop and confiscated all the dresses bearing the symbol, to be destroyed later.” As for the owner of the shop carrying the “offending” dresses, he “will not be punished as he has nothing to do with it.”
In the municipality’s defense, reports the UAE paper, “Mubarak Ali al-Shamsi, Director General of the municipality... pointed out that the UAE has official bodies to monitor the entry points at the ports and airports. ...Whenever these products enter the UAE, the authorities here try to seize and destroy them, the official noted.”
Although it is highly unlikely, to say the least, that an Israeli company would knowingly export a product to an Arab country bearing a Jewish symbol, the UAE newspaper article implies, but does not state, that the dresses were a product of Israel. Al-Shamsi concluded his statement on the topic by “[urging] the public to report such violations at the municipality to keep the country free of Israeli products.”
In the municipality’s defense, reports the UAE paper, “Mubarak Ali al-Shamsi, Director General of the municipality... pointed out that the UAE has official bodies to monitor the entry points at the ports and airports. ...Whenever these products enter the UAE, the authorities here try to seize and destroy them, the official noted.”
Although it is highly unlikely, to say the least, that an Israeli company would knowingly export a product to an Arab country bearing a Jewish symbol, the UAE newspaper article implies, but does not state, that the dresses were a product of Israel. Al-Shamsi concluded his statement on the topic by “[urging] the public to report such violations at the municipality to keep the country free of Israeli products.”