Palestinians 'adamant about continuing boycott on settlement goods'
PA economy minister says after meeting with Ben-Eliezer that Israel's request to end the campaign proves that it is working.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Israel news Palestinians Benjamin Ben Eliezer Israel settlementsPalestinian Authority Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libda said Thursday that Palestinians would continue to boycott settlement goods despite Israel's requests.
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Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer |
| Photo by: AP |
Abu Libda made his comments after a meeting with Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.
Ben Eliezer had asked the PA minister in the past to put an end to the boycott, which calls on Palestinians not to buy goods from companies such as Shamir Salads, Kobi Burekas, Ramat Hagolan Dairies, Jerusalem Granola, Bagel Bagel, Mei Eden, Soda Club, Barkan Wineries, Ramat Hagolan Wineries, Rav-Bariach and Ahava Products.
Abu Libda said that the fact that Israel has continued to request an end to the boycott proved that it was successful and has influenced the struggle to diminish the settlement's economic power.
In May, 3,000 Palestinian volunteers, conscripted by the government of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad through a group set up by the Palestinian Finance Ministry, went from door to door in West Bank communities explaining the reasons they should boycott settlement products.
Each household received a pamphlet listing dozens of Israeli products that the PA has identified as being manufactured in the West Bank and Golan Heights, and explaining that purchasing them bolsters the settlements and undermines the Palestinian struggle.
The volunteers also warned that anyone trading in such items would risk being punished.
Many of the volunteers in the campaign are university and high school students. On the T-shirts they were given is a campaign logo: a finger pointing at the viewer, similar to U.S. Army recruiting posters during the World Wars.
The list of items is quite long, and the pamphlet includes photographs in order to make them clear to the Palestinians.
The Manufacturers Association asked the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry for compensation for its members who have been hurt by the Palestinian boycott against goods produced in the West Bank.
Ministry officials have already approached their Palestinian counterparts and international bodies to ask them to act to cancel the boycott, which they say violates international trade rules and policies.
Ben-Eliezer said he views the Palestinian decision seriously, and in light of the renewal of talks between the sides, "the boycott must be lifted immediately because of the fact that many businesses in Judea and Samaria employ a large number of Palestinians," he said.
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"to ask them to act to cancel the boycott, which they say violates international trade rules and policies." -- This is a consumers' boycott. International trade rules do not determinate consumer behavior. I do not buy Israeli tomatoes, will you now approach the German government or international agencies to stop me from boycotting?
when Israel is continually blamed for the lack of it (peace). It is in the Palestinians interest keep pressuring Israel into making more unilateral concessions that are only met with more Palestinian aggression. The Palestinian have calculated that it is far better to make Israel suffer, than bring prosperity to their own people. Is it just bad leadership? or is there something about these people in particular that eludes us all?
Palestinians have tried boycotts before., they always fail. It forces them to buy inferior goods at inflated prices from companies that are owned by Palestinian Authority flunkies.
The two people need a divorce and that includes not only proximity to one another but economic as well. Israel should not be using any more Pal labor than absolutly necessary and the Pals should be turning towards Jordan.
But not with Palestinians, as the article states: "The volunteers also warned that anyone trading in such items would risk being punished.". As is typical they threaten those who would disagree with them. So apparently the Palestinians need intimidation to enforce the boycott. Should be a great new country next to Israel, as in all the surrounding countries dissent from government policy will be "Punished". Nice!
There are a growing number of people who are now campaigning to buy blue & white and have nothing to do with the palestinians as a counter boycott. The palestinians should also remeber thousands of them rely on the settlements for a living. If the settlements are not making as much money they are going to start laying people off which means more unemployed palestinians
Israel should fire forthwith all the palestinian workers involved inmaking the goods in question. Then Israel should should refuse to sell to the west bank an equivalent shekel amount of neccesities.
That there hasn't been a Palestinian boycott of settlement-made products for the last 43 years is in itself mind-boggling. What is even more unbelievable is that Israeli leaders appear to not understand why such a boycott is happening. It is no wonder that these two peoples are in such a mess.
It is essential that it work as well in the US and every move to increase awareness of where these products are produced must be publicised and efforts made to have merchants stop carrying them. There will be a backlash from pro-zionist groups but this will be effective in a more limited market. Co-ops should be targeted first, asking them to stop carrying any produce or wine or cosmetics produced or manufactured in the occupied territories of Palestine.
PA's boycott of settlement products violates international trade rules and policies? Is this a joke?? And what about Israeli illegal settlements that violate international law? I guess we're being a bit too selective of which law applies to what and to whom. Suck it up and deal with it.
!
What international law?
Israel should not even humiliate herself by asking the Palestinians to lift the boycott. They cannot lift it and thereby lend economic support to the occupation. (Notice that Ben-Eliezer's face is reddish, perhaps from embarrassment.)Israel should just live with the boycott or move these industries back behind the Green Line.
They have a lot more to loose than us. Hire only Jewish workers, no arabs.
Hire the Haredim. Oh, they don't. You could bus them in from Israel to work in the settlements.
It is either the Pals. or the foreign workers.
"Hire only Jewish workers, no arabs." -- Are you suggesting they hire Arabs out of good-heartedness? Jews either don't like the work or the poor pay, or both.
It is humiliating enough to live under 40+ years of occupation...much less to be forced to FUND AND SUPPORT the very people who are stealing your lands. I fully support the Palestinian decision to boycott settlement goods and I hope other nations will follow their example.