• Julia Zaher is an Arab business tycoon.
• Her company manufactures a popular brand of Tahini in Israel.
• But she was surprised when some conservative people made a call to boycott her products because she had made a donation to a gay rights group.

---

The details of this controversy are here!

Julia Zaher and boycott her products

Julia Zaher is an Arab and has a company that makes the most popular Tahini in Israel. She is famous and donates to a lot of charities.

Recently, she donated to an Israeli gay rights group. And she got a backlash for her noble work.

Instead of praising her great deed, the conservative Arab community decided to boycott her company Al Arz and its products. The call for a boycott was quick and unforgiving as is expected in that part of the world.

Facebook and Twitter went wild with videos of shopkeepers pulling her company products out of their shop shelves. They also threw them into the garbage.

Also, read All The Controversy Ongoing Of Beauty Community in 2020; From Tati Westbrook To Jeffree Star And Shane Dawson Are On Fire!

More on this controversy and boycott

One of the largest Arab-owned grocery chains in Israel, Al Mashadawi’s executive revealed that they were going to remove the company’s products from all its 14 stores.

Jabr Hejazi, a supermarket owner in the northern town of Tamra also suddenly stopped stocking the product in his shop.

Jabr said:

“We have values that we follow. It’s a simple matter.”

Julia, 67 is an Israeli citizen is shocked by this reaction on the part of the community and shopkeepers. She justified her noble act of donation and said in an interview:

“When I see people in a tough place, I always like to help them,”

She added:

“If everyone turns their back on this community, who is going to help?”

Being gay is considered a stigma in the Arab world which even today holds conservative views on social and family life and lifestyle.

The positive side of this controversy

The incident has saddened Julia and her loyal buyers. But gay activists are optimistic. They feel that this incident has a positive effect and this is welcome.

The activists believe that the effect of this controversy would be that it will draw the attention of the community towards a group that has remained ignored for so long.

The gay and transgender members of Israel’s Arab minority often have expressed that they are marginalized and discriminated against.

Khader Abu-Seif, 33, an L.G.B.T. rights activist in Tel Aviv stated:

“This is a huge event,”

“Of course, we’re seeing ugliness, but we’re also seeing support from people who never spoke out openly for us in the past.”

Julia is a mild-mannered lady and a mother-of-two. She hails from Nazareth and has served as a catalyst in getting the attention of Israel people and the world to the problems of the gay community there.

Her husband died of cardiac arrest in 2003. She is a former school teacher and after her husband’s death, she took over his business and has managed it well until now.