Yasser Arafat potato chips take Egyptian market by storm

Associated Press
Published May 28, 2002

CAIRO, Egypt -- Cheese-flavored Yasser Arafat potato chips - five cents a bag.

Vendors report brisk sales of the new product. The maker of the chips says it donates five cents - 25 pisaters - to the ``Palestinian cause'' for every 50 packages sold.

The chips are bagged in Palestinian colors - green, red, black and white - and carry the likeness of a rotund and wide-eyed Arafat, saluting with one hand and holding a Palestinian flag in the other. He's dressed in his trademark military fatigues and black-and-white checked headgear.

Shopkeepers say the Arafat chips, named Abu Ammar - the Palestinian leader's nom de guerre, are considerably outselling another new brand, The Hero, which hit store shelves earlier this month. The packaging for that brand pictures a schoolboy holding a stone in his right hand and books in the other as he confronts an Israeli tank.

``There's no one who doesn't love Abu Ammar,'' said Iman Mohammed Darwish, a 12-year-old girl. ``I like the taste, and I want to help the Palestinians.''

``I sell at least three boxes (150 bags) of Abu Ammar daily,'' said Fatma Abdel-Ghani, a shopkeeper in the Cairo suburb of Thakanat Al-Maadi as she carefully placed boxes of Abu Ammar above those containing The Hero and other brands of chips.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict that erupted 20 months ago has captivated Egyptians of all social classes and has spawned movies and songs by pop stars in support of Arafat's cause. Most trade and professional unions have collected money, food and medicine for Palestinians.

As newspapers and television broadcasts have been dominated by the conflict, university students staged anti-Israeli demonstrations nearly every day and called on President Hosni Mubarak's government to break diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Arafat brand chips are produced by Al-Jawhara Co. for International Industries. The back of each bag reads: ``The more you buy, the more you build.''
 

Source: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1451/2865004.html