MIDDLE EAST: Campaign for the boycott of settlement goods gains momentum across the West Bank

Record ID: 345978

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Campaign for the boycott of settlement goods gains momentum across the West Bank
  • Date: 21st May 2010
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (MAY 18, 2010) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN VOLUNTEERS GATHERING IN RAMALLAH AHEAD OF DOOR TO DOOR CAMPAIGN PALESTINIAN FLAG VOLUNTEERS GATHERED NEXT TO POSTER ABOUT BOYCOTT VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS BEING GIVEN T-SHIRTS AND CAPS FOR CAMPAIGN GOVERNOR OF RAMALLAH AND AL-BEIREH DISTRICT, LAYLA GHANAM, STANDING WITH VOLUNTEERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) GOVERNOR OF RAMALLAH AND AL-BEIREH DISTRICT, LAYLA GHANAM, SAYING: "We are today present here in front of the governor's building for Ramallah and Al-Beireh to announce the launch of the campaign to resist the settlement products. These products attack us, just like they (the settlers) attack us when they take our land as they have taken our land before and killed our children." VOLUNTEERS STANDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAITHAM KAYALEH, PALESTINIAN VOLUNTEER ORGANISER SAYING: "What is happening today is Palestinian grass roots volunteers, around three thousand today who are leading this campaign, going around from house to house providing people with information needed that will help them get rid of settlement products and they encourage them of course to replace it with Palestinian products instead." VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS ARRIVING AT HOUSE IN RAMALLAH VOLUNTEERS SAT IN HOUSE WITH OWNER TALKING ABOUT SETTLER PRODUCTS CLOSE-UP OF VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER SHOWING HOMEOWNER A BOOKLET OF SETTLER PRODUCTS HOMEOWNER ATTACHING STICKER TO FRONT GATE OF HOUSE CLOSE-UP OF STICKER READING "MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR, HOW ABOUT YOU?"
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3S52USJDG8B3ROCXJ9H15EL3X
  • Story Text: Palestinians deploy approximately 3,000 volunteers for house-to-house instruction on settler product boycott.
    A boycott campaign of settler products launched by the Palestinian Authority continued to gain momentum on Thursday (May 20), spreading across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
    The Palestinian government in Ramallah employed approximately 3,000 residents of the West Bank, to advise people on which products should be avoided.
    "We are today present here in front of the governor's building for Ramallah and Al-Beireh to announce the launch of the campaign to resist the settlement products. These products attack us, just like they (the settlers) attack us when they take our land as they have taken our land before and killed our children," the governor of Ramallah and AlBireh, Layla Ghanam, said.
    The volunteers, wearing T-shirts reading: 'My conscience is clear what about yours?' and armed with booklets and stickers went from house to house to help Palestinian residents recognise settlement products from other Israeli products made in Israel proper.
    "What is happening today is Palestinian grass roots volunteers, around three thousand today who are leading this campaign, going around from house to house providing people with information needed that will help them get rid of settlement products and they encourage them of course to replace it with Palestinian products instead," said Haitham Kayaleh, one of the organisers of the volunteer movement.
    Since the start of the campaign, which Palestinians are encouraging European Union (EU) member states to join, some $200 million US dollars in settlement-produced goods have been confiscated in the West Bank.
    The Israeli government has condemned the campaign which is spreading to Israeli-Arab towns, calling it an act of incitement, especially when coming at a time when the two sides are engaged in U.S sponsored indirect talks.
    "At this precise moment when peace talks, however fragile and timid, are being relaunched, this is probably the most destructive message that can be conveyed from the Palestinians. It is highly regrettable that they have chosen the path of confrontation and negative attitude rather than extending a hand and offering a prospective for peace," Yigal Palmour, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, told Reuters.
    The campaign was launched a few months ago in the West Bank and quickly found favour with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who passed a law in support of the boycott, forbidding Palestinians from working in the settlements.
    The law, aimed at severing commercial ties with the settlements says any Palestinians violating the ban could face up to five years in jail and fines of up to $14,000 US dollars.
    The potential penalties were not made public when Abbas signed the law last month, banning trade goods made by Israelis living in approximately 100 settlements across the West Bank.
    Danny Dayan, the Chairman of the Yesha Council, says the campaign adopted and spearheaded by the Palestinian government is an attack on Israel and its interests.
    "It's economic terrorism and we expect the Israeli government to react to it swiftly and rapidly," Dayan told Reuters.
    The leader of the settler organisation, the Yesha Council, said counter measures were being put in place to try and alleviate any economic impact from the boycott.
    "We opened a website in which we put the exact same names that the Palestinians put in their leaflets and websites, they call us to boycott those products, we call the Israeli public to make a point in buying especially those products that the Palestinians are boycotting," Dayan added.
    Hundreds of thousands of settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where tensions remain high between the Palestinian residents and their Jewish neighbours.
    The Palestinian Authority has demanded a halt to Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war from Jordan and Egypt. The settlements are a major obstacle in the ongoing peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
    According to an International Court of Justice non-binding ruling and the Geneva Convention, structures built on land occupied by Israel are illegal, rendering settlements built in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, as unlawful.
    There are approximately ten industrial zones in the West Bank settlements, most employing Palestinians workers from the surrounding area. The settlement industry produces a wide range of products from cosmetics through to fruit and vegetables.
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