A car garage in Oldham, northern England overcharged a Jewish customer for a part and then sent him an email telling him they do not provide service to the State of Israel and seemed to compare the Jewish state to ISIS.
An Israeli was refused a sale by a garage in England because of his nationality.
The Coordinator Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism (CFCA), which documents and combats anti-Semitism around the globe, reported Sunday that when Jack de Lowe, a resident of Israel, contacted a garage in Oldham, northern England, to buy a wing mirror for his Ford Focus earlier this month, he was quoted the vastly inflated figure of £1,025 for the piece, instead of the standard £40 for the mirror.
When he emailed the firm again to inquire about the overblown pricing, he received the following belligerent response:
“As we do not recognize the state of israel we do not ship to such non exitent ountries hwoever [sic] delivery to palestin can be arranged at a sensible price.”
No one signed the message.
When contacted by a radio station, Street Heat, Ford Parts Oldham confirmed that the owner of the business, Mursal Israr, sent it personally.
He said he was justified in doing so because it is his right not to do business with an individual if he doesn’t want to.
“I sent the email myself…We don’t recognize the illegal occupation of Israel,” he said. “We don’t believe in the illegal occupation of what is going on there and there’s innocent Muslims and people are getting killed there on a daily basis so we don’t wish to do any business with the state of Israel whatsoever because we don’t recognize the state of Israel.”
When it was pointed out that de Lowe is an individual and not a representative of the state of Israel, Israr replied: “It doesn’t matter, he shouldn’t live there, then…There is no state of Israel, let’s begin with that. We don’t discriminate against people whatsoever but we don’t do business with Israel because we don’t recognize it.”
“I am allowed to do business with whomever I wish to do business with…It’s up to me who I do business with,” he asserted.
“We don’t do business with ISIS (Islamic State terror group), we don’t do business with Israel, they’re the same thing,” he concluded.
A spokesman for Ford said Israr’s business is not an official Ford franchise and is not affiliated with Ford in any way. They added that their legal team is now investigating Israr’s use of the word ‘Ford’ in his company’s name.
It is of significance to note that the Jewish community in the United Kingdom has seen an alarming rise in anti-Semitic attacks and incidents during the first six months of 2016.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News