Lebanese Leftists fight over Nestle-sponsored AUB concert

BEIRUT - Mirna Shidrawi

November 2003

A concert by the leftist Shahhadin ya Baladna youth band, sponsored by Nescafe, caused a stir among the rank and file of the young leftist movement in Beirut.

The Nescafe sponsor prompted the Boycott Campaign to threaten of spoiling the band’s concert held in late October at the American University of Beirut (AUB) attracting more than 250 attendees.

The concert came as the first in a series to be held in different universities by Shahhadin ya Baladna, a group of young musicians lead by Ziad Sahhab.

The Boycott Campaign, which used the similar arguments against AUB’s leftists student groups, the Progressive Youth Organization and No Frontiers, when they organized a Nestle-sponsored concert by famous leftist singer Khaled El-Haber in May, accused Sahhab of being an opportunist and “willingly helping Nestle in supporting Israel.”

In a circular the boycotters distributed before the concert and published on Indymedia Beirut, they wondered about the difference between Shahhadin ya Baladna and "the traitors who served Israel?" 

The writer of the circular answered her question by saying that she could not see the difference but that she knew “what's common between them and those traitors: support the killing, the occupation, (and) Israel!”

Sahhab and members of his group had previously represented the campaign in an anti-Coca Cola concert in Turkey in the summer.

Sahhab's supporters described the escalation of the boycotters to be “shameful.” In a response to the circular published in Indymedia Beirut, Sahhab's supporters advised the boycotters to “[s]top this anti-left campaign, and direct [their] activities toward Israel-supporting companies themselves not against fellow leftists.”

They also urged boycotters to search for alternative sponsors that might support musicians like Sahhab.  The response added: “If you don’t have (alternative sponsors), stop spreading lies about people.”

"A radical boycott activist invaded rehearsals and accused the band of being opportunists,” a band supporter and witness who preferred his name to stay anonymous told Alternative. 

“In an insulting manner, she gave lessons in leftism and morality threatening to ruin the series of concerts," he added.

Pro-Sahhab arguments included accusations that a prominent boycott activists was employed in a “capitalist” television whose popular show was sponsored by Lipton, another company accused of supporting Israel and its occupation.

The boycotters are campaigning against Nestle not only because it supports the Israeli occupation in Palestine and what they describe as the “apartheid system forced by Israel on Palestinians,” but also because it is responsible of increasing “infant mortality rate in developing countries through its marketing of baby milk formula as a substitute to breast feeding.”

The boycott campaign accuses Nestle of presumably “killing union workers and violating their rights.”

In their first concert, Shahhadin ya Baladna did not offer any new songs to their fans.  Organized by the Human Rights and Peace Club in AUB, the concert included an array of songs such popular songs.