Taybeh Beer
Posted on 03/02/2006 4:32:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
TAYBEH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian brewer Nadim Khoury, far from going out of business after Hamas Islamists won an election landslide, is preparing a new product -- non-alcoholic beer.
Khoury said his brewery would put a green label on bottles instead of the gold one on regular Taybeh beer. The reason? The green flag of Hamas.
"Now we have a new government, so our motive to produce non-alcoholic beer becomes stronger," said Khoury, general director of Taybeh Beer, the only brewery in the occupied West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's surprise election win worried some Palestinians, including beer drinkers, that the group would impose strict Islamic laws. Hamas has sought to calm such fears, declaring it would not shut bars but only "preach" against them.
Islam prohibits alcohol consumption, however secular Palestinians can drink in bars and cafes in West Bank cities.
Khoury's Taybeh beer was banned in the more religiously conservative Gaza Strip following the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000. No alcohol is sold openly in Gaza.
A Palestinian Christian, Khoury said it was "the right time and the right place to launch the new product." He hopes to be in production by the middle of the year.
"We can sell non-alcoholic beer in Gaza very easily," Khoury said at his brewery in the mainly Christian village of Taybeh, overlooking the picturesque hilly West Bank landscape and not far from Ramallah, the Palestinian political hub.
But winning converts from Hamas supporters and traditional drinkers won't be easy.
"Either I drink beer or not. I am not going to fool myself and drink non-alcoholic beer," said Shadi Abdel-Hadi, a 24-year-old bar goer.
BEER IS BEER
Hamas men have different reasons for not drinking non-alcoholic beer, even though it's not prohibited under Islam. The problem, said Hamas's new parliament speaker Aziz Dweik, is that it's still called beer.
However, Dweik praised Khoury's plan, saying he hoped demand for alcoholic products would drop significantly in the wake of the militant group's big victory in the January 25 elections.
Hamas would not ban alcohol but seek to persuade Palestinians from drinking, he added.
Khoury said a sense of pride in his homeland spurred him to return after two decades in the United States to build the brewery shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993. His family invested about $2 million.
Khoury said sales had halved since the uprising began in 2000, partly because of the bans in Gaza.
At the moment, the brewery produces 6,000 hectolitres of alcoholic beer each year. The non-alcoholic beer will be ready for consumption this summer but there is no production target as it is a new project.
Israel and the United States have vowed to boycott a Hamas-led government until it recognizes the Jewish state, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals.
Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since the Palestinian uprising began in 2000. It is sworn to Israel's destruction, but has largely abided by a ceasefire agreed a year ago.
Wise beyond his years.
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The problem, said Hamas's new parliament speaker Aziz Dweik, is that it's still called beer.
Why not change it to what most beers are here in the States,
Pig swill.
(and it's not bad)
ML/NJ
Time to wake up and smell the explosives.
You returned to the hellhole you were born in due to "pride in your homeland." Do you like the smell of charred bodies in the morning, perhaps?
Your sales have been cut in half since the beginning of the intifada, and it ain't gonna get any better, Mr. Khoury, since, according to a member of your new Hamas government, "it's still called beer."
I'd say it's time to cut your losses, before everything above your shoulder blades is cut. We admire your enterpreneurial spirit here in the West, but you can be sure as heck your neighbors -- most of whom live off the dole provided by other countries -- don't. (Unless, of course, you've covertly leasing brewery space to bomb makers.)
And none of that annoying euphoria either.
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