The Saudi Arabia city of Qurayyat, located near the border with Jordan, went on high alert Tuesday after official discovered a local fruit market was selling persimmons that came from Israel.
Anything from Israel is considered evil in the kingdom, home of the holiest city for enlightened Muslims.
The Saudi Gazette reported that a local inspection team, acting on a tip, confiscated approximately 300 pounds of persimmon that had Israel stickers.
“The municipality team conducted a surprise inspection after the closing hours of the fruit market and confiscated the fruit boxes that originated from Israel,” said them municipality environment health department director Abdulaziz Al-Musaed.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry was alerted at the chutzpa of someone daring to buy and selling fruit from the forbidden country of Israel.
The Saudi Food and Drug Authority also was notified. It seems every official agency was alerted except perhaps for the Air Force. Al-Musaed reminded Saudis that “such fruit is not allowed in the Kingdom, and he warned shopkeepers not to deal with fruit vendors without knowing the true origin of produce.
An investigation is underway to determine how the evil persimmons found their way into the holy Muslim country.
Al Qurayyat is located 19 miles from the border with Jordan.
If authorities catch the poor soul who violated the purity of the country by contaminating it with Israeli fruit, he will be lucky to get away with flogging instead of having his hands chopped off so he never again will be able to touch anything from Israel.
If authorities catch the poor soul who violated the purity of the country by contaminating it with Israeli fruit, he will be lucky to get away with flogging instead of having his hands chopped off so he never again will be able to touch anything from Israel.
In 2005, Saudi Arabia announced the end of its ban on Israeli goods and services, mostly due to its application to the World Trade Organization, where one member country cannot have a total ban on another. However, the boycott in practice still stands.
The truth is that there are many Israeli products in Saudi Arabia, but they have no labels that would divulge that they were sent from the enemy of darkness.
When I worked at a kibbutz plastics factory years ago, we made sure that the product being shipped to Saudi Arabia was sent in a box marked “Made in Jordan.”