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SAUDI ARABIA: ISRAELI PAPER CUPS SPARK OUTRAGE

Paper cups made in Israel have caused a storm of protest in a Saudi hospital, the Saudi newspaper Arab News reports. Officials at the King Khaled National Guard Hospital says they are investigating after the catering subcontractors for the coffee shops in the hospital ran out and began using Israeli paper cups with Hebrew writing on them, sparking outrage among the customers.

Hospital executive director, Saleh Al-Mazroi, said the matter had been referred to the authorities in Riyadh and action would be taken.

The manager and owner of the catering company, Ibrahim Al-Musbah, told Arab News that the paper cups had been delivered to his company by mistake and looked like the ones they usually used.

The Saudi cup controversy comes a week after lawmakers in neighbouring Kuwait called for any Kuwaiti who visits Israel to be stripped of their passport. The request was prompted by an interview with Israel's foreign minister Silvan Shalom, published by a local newspaper, in which he claimed that businessmen from the tiny oil-rich emirate regularly travelled to Israel for business trips of medical treatment.

--Adnkronos International

Quick! Time to convene a panel on the new anti-Semitism among Western liberals!