Extremists are hijacking the good name of demolition equipment manufacturers.
It was a feeling of déjà vu all over again this morning when I turned on my PC and was greeted by a headline that read: UN official calls for action as Volvo machines used to demolish Palestinian homes.
After the initial shock of such a forceful headline, the story began to take on a very familiar tone. It suggested that Volvo was, in some way, supporting the Israeli position, was somehow complicit in crimes against the Palestinian people, and that its products should be boycotted.
Sound familiar? It should. This was precisely the same line that was used against JCB just last year.
At the time, we leapt to JCB’s defence and we do likewise with Volvo. Both are reputable manufacturing companies that sell their products around the world. The fact that those products occasionally turn up in a conflict zone is no reflection upon the political leanings of either.
But it runs deeper than that. Intrigued by the fact that the same website that had cited both JCB and Volvo, I dug a little deeper. And lo and behold, the mighty Caterpillar was similarly accused in the middle of last year.
If you were being kind, you might accept that this was merely amateurish reporting. If you were slightly more cynical, you might use the word propaganda.
If you’re like me however, you would see it for what it really is – The crass exploitation of reputable company names to help publicise extremist views.
The fact is that names like Caterpillar, JCB and Volvo (and, as it transpires, McDonalds) are big search terms on Google, Bing and a host of other Internet search engines. So anyone searching for these names will eventually land upon a page accusing them of war crimes.
Whether the people searching are foolish enough to believe these ridiculous claims is not the point. The point, purely, is to attract readers to politically-biased websites.
