DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (IPS)�The university cafeteria at the University of Sharjah has stopped selling soft drinks manufactured by U.S. multinationals, and instead stocks other beverages produced in the country or region.

The American economy is "surviving on Arab money, which is used to supply the Israelis with monetary and military assistance to kill the Palestinians who are resisting the occupation for 50 years," Nawal Jasim, head of the Women Students� Union at the university, said in explaining the boycott.

"If the Arab governments do not boycott American goods, we believe it is our responsibility to take the initiative," Ms. Jasim added. "We are a billion Muslims and imagine how much the U.S. economy would be affected if each of us boycott a soft drink or all American products."

These moves for a boycott, amid the Israeli offensive against Palestinian areas, are triggering a people�s revolution of a kind rarely seen before in the region. They reflect how the angry political calls in the Arab streets for Israel�s withdrawal are fast turning into a search for an economic threat against Washington, in order to force a policy shift by the United States.

Unlike the rhetoric of Arab governments, people in the region are resorting to taking action at their level by boycotting U.S.-made products�thus, UAE journalists are organizing a boycott conference, some Lebanese have begun turning their backs away from American products like cigarettes. Some have gone as far as calling for a repudiation of the U.S. dollar in international trade.

"I have never seen the streets in the Gulf filled with so much hatred and anger as they have been in the past fortnight. The situation is reaching boiling point," said Dr. Saeed Hareb, professor of law at the UAE University. "The striking feature of the demonstrations is that the initiatives have been taken not by the governments, but by students as a collective group and by individuals out of their own choice."

Recently, the UAE Journalists� Association announced that a national committee for boycotting American goods would be formed in cooperation with public welfare societies and civil society organizations.

In a statement, Dr. Aisha al-Nuaimi, a member of the association, urged the government to support the first boycott conference on May 13-14.

Anas Al Zaibaq, a Syrian marketing representative working for a private company in the UAE, said: "Since the United States has been supporting Israel in its crime, we as Arabs must put pressure on it by boycotting its products."

A war on the economic front is one language the materialistic West understands, he argues.

The first of the demands for the boycott of American products in the region came surprisingly from Bahrain, a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally of the United States and where its navy�s Fifth Fleet is now positioned. Anti-Israel and anti-U.S. graffiti reportedly began appearing there several weeks ago.

So far, the rallying calls have not just been for boycotting American goods, but "we want the government to close the U.S. embassy and the military bases," according to Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper.

A group of people even managed to break through a U.S. embassy compound wall, damaging windowpanes and setting at least three cars on fire, leading King Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa to warn Washington that the U.S. interests in the region were in jeopardy if it did not alter its Middle East stance.

Apart from the Gulf, Lebanon, Morocco and Iraq have also witnessed "boycott" calls.

American cigarettes became the first casualty of such calls in Lebanon. "The price of a packet of American cigarettes is equal to the price of a bullet that will be targeted at the Palestinian people," said a leaflet distributed by university students in Beirut recently, according to the local Gulf News newspaper.

Lists of Lebanese, Arab, European and Asian products have been distributed to houses as alternatives, resulting in the "sale of American cigarettes going down by half," it added.