Ramallah: Products from six major Israeli companies have been banned from entering the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Higher Commission, established to confront Israeli punitive measures against the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), has announced.
According to Dr Wasel Abu Yousuf, a member of the commission and a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Palestinian merchants in the West Bank will have two weeks to dispose of all these products, after which they will be barred from Palestinian stores.
The companies the committee is seeking to boycott are Strauss, Elite, Tnuva, Jafora-Tabori, Osem and Prigat. The commission has distributed millions of stickers to be put on the products saying, “When you buy this product, you actually donate 16 per cent to the Israeli army”.
The Palestinian move came in response to Israeli measures imposed on Palestinians including withholding Palestinian tax revenue, which Israel collects on behalf of the PNA.
These measures were introduced by the Israelis after the PNA approached the International Criminal Court (ICC) to press war crime charges against Israeli political and military officials. “Israel has crossed all the red lines in pressing the Palestinian public and leadership which sought freedom and was punished in that brutal way,” he told Gulf News.
Abu Yousuf said that this campaign is a serious one and that after the grace period is over, Palestinian inspectors will tour markets to ensure the boycott is being enforced.
‘Long strategy’
“This partial boycott campaign will be a mere part of a long Palestinian strategy to boycott all Israeli products and goods,” he said, adding that more Israeli products and companies will be gradually added to the boycott list.
“The campaign will end in a total boycott of Israeli products, but will move in a gradual and effective way,” he said.
Abu Yousuf said that putting this campaign in place might clash with the work of some Palestinian ministries, but this issue had already been addressed by various PNA bodies. He also said that the Palestinian National Council will convene by the beginning of the coming month to address issues to make the boycott a success.
He said that the Israeli products will be targeted by Palestinian Customs officials. The commission has also dispatched representatives to West Bank schools where representatives have addressed the issue of boycotting the Israeli products.
Abu Yousuf said that the move has been welcomed by Palestinians producers and factories which were pressed to produce products of higher quality to compete with the Israeli products, which have been dominating Palestinian markets for a long time.
