Before Sabra, before Sodastream, Arab antisemites boycotted Topps Chewing Gum Company ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Monday, December 16, 2024

Before Sabra, before Sodastream, Arab antisemites boycotted Topps Chewing Gum Company

From International News Service, March 5, 1957:

American firms making everything from bubble gum to varnish are being blacklisted by the nine Arab nations for refusing to end their trade with Israel. The widespread pressure campaign to force world industry to boycott Israel already has led scores of manufacturers in 19 countries, including the U.S., to accede, INS learned today.

The Arab League "Boycott Bureau" in Alexandria, Egypt, announced today, without giving details, that 25 foreign firms had been blacklisted, and 49 foreign companies had agreed to discontinue commercial relations with Israel in the past year.

The announcement followed disclosure by INS last Friday that powerful Arab blacklist pressure had forced a boycott of Israel by major U.S. and other free world oil and shipping interests.

A spokesman for Topps said the company was put on the blacklist because its packages of gum contained cards showing flags of all nations and had included the flag of Israel.

The firm recently was permitted to resume shipments to some of the Arabian countries but only after agreeing not to ship or attempt to sell the item which aroused Arab League displeasure.

The U.S. Government is aware of the discrimination against American firms which deal with Israel. The Department of Commerce recently published a notice that Saudi Arabia intended to boycott not only firms doing business with Israel but those which are owned or directed by Jews. 

Actually, by 1957, it was well known that the boycott included Jewish owned or controlled companies.

Anyway, while Topps managed to get out of being boycotted in 1957, it once again became boycotted decades later. From a 1983 US Government intelligence report on the effects of boycotts:

Although boycott officials periodically insist publicly and privately that only firms adding to Israel’s strength are blacklisted, the contributions of many boycotted companies are difficult to discern. The Topps Chewing Gum Company, for example, was blacklisted after it licensed an Israeli factory to produce Bazooka bubble gum.

The report doesn't mention it, but the founders of Topps Chewing Gum Company were four Jewish brothers, Abram, Ira, Joseph and Philip Shorin. The person who designed the first baseball cards in a Topps bubblegum pack was another Jew, Sy Berger.

So while the intelligence community seemed perplexed at the Arab boycott of Topps, the reason was obvious.

That report also showed that the Arab League boycott was suspended in cases where such a boycott would hurt Arab businesses more than it would hurt Israel. There was never anything principled about either the Arab League boycott or BDS - they were always aimed at Jews.