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End the Arab Boycott of Israel
(New York Times) Ed Husain - I recently visited Israel and the West Bank for the first time. I am Muslim and in Muslim communities around the world to visit Israel is to support "the Zionist entity" and risk social isolation. Not only is this mind-set outdated, it is self-defeating. The Arab League began its boycott of Zionist goods back in 1945. In reality, the Gulf states and others circumvent this policy, but the Arab and Muslim masses have yet to break free from the mind-set of boycotting all things Israeli. I abandoned Muslim groupthink and went to Israel because there is a new momentum in the region. Egypt's former grand mufti, Ali Gomaa, and the prominent scholar Habib Ali al-Jifri broke ranks and went to Jerusalem last April. They justified their visit on scriptural grounds, citing the Prophet Muhammad's encouragement for believers to visit the Holy Land. Muslim leaders in Jerusalem welcomed both men and Palestinian imams called for the end of the Arab boycott on Al Jazeera. The voice of the Palestinian imams who want to see an end to the boycott needs to be amplified. Without a shift in attitudes, Israel's security concerns will never be allayed. Humanizing Israel to Arabs - by addressing anti-Semitism in school textbooks and in sermons at mosques, and by permitting Arab citizens to visit and trade with Israel - are requisite first steps. The writer is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.