Survey: 24% of Jewish Israeli consumers say they boycott Arab businesses

Geo-cartagraphia poll also finds that 51% of respondents said businesses that refused to fire employees who speak against the IDF should be boycotted.

By GLOBES
Jewish and Arab customers at a Rami Levy supermarket in Jerusalem. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Jewish and Arab customers at a Rami Levy supermarket in Jerusalem.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
One month after the end of Operation Protective Edge, a telephone survey by Geo-cartagraphia found that 24 percent of Israeli Jewish consumers are boycotting Arab businesses. That is down from 29% who said they boycotted such businesses during the Gaza operation and 47% who said they planned to boycott them during the fighting.
The survey also found that 51% of respondents said businesses that refused to fire employees who speak against the IDF should be boycotted, down from 57% last month. In practice, 11% of Jewish consumers said they are boycotting such businesses, while 40% would if they could identify such businesses.
The findings tally with Globes sources among suppliers who said sales to Arab supermarkets were substantially down in recent months; one supplier said by about 10%.
Some Arab-owned supermarkets have been hit even harder. The Big Zol branch in Shfaram, near Haifa, said sales were down 50% during the Gaza operation.
“Our stores are in Jewish neighborhoods,” Super Zol owner Yussef Askar said. “We only have one store in an Arab location in Shfaram. Jews stopped coming to the Shfaram branch but came back when the war was over.”