Fadi Zaghmout

Mr. Amre Husseni, the general manager of Publicis in Jordan commented on my post about Publicis and the Jordan Festival on his first attempt of giving an official statement clearing out Publicis’s stand about all the fuzz and rumors generated around the festival.

Because older posts are rarely checked up, I though of copying his comment here so that you all can read it. Here is what he said:

Hi all, came across this blog following a google search of a different topic and caught on…I am Amre Husseini, the general manager of Publicis Graphics in Jordan.

I want to start off by saying that I am Jordanian of Palestinian origin, from Jerusalem actually I am very proud of my Jordanian nationality and of my Palestinian origin. Over the last few weeks the company I represent in Jordan has been attacked by persons who have a very different objective and are only using Publicis as a scapegoat to express their true feelings.

To start, I build on the words of His Majesty King Abdullah the Second, who came out last Wednesday and gave an example of Intel. A company that contributes amounts to Israel every year…what are we supposed to do, stop using computers that have intel inside them? Their relationship to israel is very clear and has no fabrication (as the case of Jordan Festival) so all those in favor of boycott should use the same principle and turn off their desktops or laptops and find another way of communicating because 85% of PC’s around the world are intel based…As his Majesty stated, such actions would give a technological advancement to Israel, imagine the advancement of Jordan and the Arab world without computers.

As Publicis Graphics Jordan we are a proud Jordanian entity that employees over 130 persons between all our companies, each of us is proud of our nationality and each of us is proud of the fact that we belong to a Global network that is French in origin.

Anyway maybe this is too drawn out, but this is the first official comment I make about the case, so I will summarize:

A. Publicis DID NOT manage the 60th anniversary of Israel.

B. Maurice Levy’s statement was mis-quoted and a large portion of it was left out “I am a friend of Israel…” the part that says “and Palestine, was lost in translation”

C. Publicis is not managing the Jordan Festival

D. During the last WEF held in Jordan Maurice Levy introduced a campaign titled IMAGINE that was a joint effort between an equal number of Palestinian and Israeli creative talents, working together to create a campaign that DEMANDED peace.

E. Maurice Levy does not own Publicis, it is a company listed on the French stock exchange

F. the list of lies that media claimed in Jordan goes on and on…this list of lies was insulting and the fact that some people were willing to accept these lies was even more insulting.

I leave you with a a few questions…

1. Did any of you try and buy tickets to opening night of the Jordan Festival…it was difficult wasn’t it, Why? Because it was sold out and the people saw through the agenda of Nakabet al Faneen and realized the truth in the words of MALEK AL BILAD.

2. Why did nakabet al faneen do this whole thing? What is the agenda? Is it personal gain for people in the Nakabeh? Or is it a true admiration for the Jerash Festival? Jerash is one destination in a great country, Jerash is a component of Jordan and hence the Jordan Festival.

Please guys, lets all realize the importance of this issue and the importance of the fact that Jordan is going places and we have to depend on each other and our future vision for this country to succeed, backward thinking will bring us down, we dont have oil, we dont have gas, we only have a small access to the sea, we are limited, our strength is everyone of us. Each realizing his true potential and working towards it, not each trying to bring the other down.

In closing sorry it is such a long post, but it comes from the heart and it questions the intentions of Nakabet al Fananeen and it hails the efforts of HMK.

If any of you would like to reach me my direct email is ahusseini@publicisgraphics.com.jo

I add my voice to Mr. Amre and beg everyone to realize the importance of us working with each other in building this country without pointing fingers and fighting each other over some silly rumors.