Palestinians launch boycott of products made in Israeli settlements in West Bank

Palestinians boycott Israeli settlement goods

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinians on Tuesday announced a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank, stepping up their campaign against Israeli settlements.

Economics Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said the Western-backed Palestinian government already has confiscated $1 million worth of products, including foods, cosmetics and hardware, and the goal is to eliminate all settlement-made goods from Palestinian store shelves next year.

“Consuming settlements’ products is wrong, nationally, economically, politically, and must stop right away,” Abu Libdeh told a news conference.

The Palestinians have long objected to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured areas the Palestinians claim for a future independent state.

But they have stepped up their criticism since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to resume peace talks, which broke down a year ago, unless Israel halts all settlement construction.

Netanyahu, a traditional ally of the settlers, has imposed a 10-month slowdown on West Bank settlement construction in hopes of muting U.S. criticism and luring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. The order, which forbids construction of new homes, has enraged the settlers, who have blocked inspectors from entering their communities to enforce the ban.

But the Palestinians dismiss the move as insincere because it excludes east Jerusalem and 3,000 homes already being built in the West Bank. Some 300,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Jewish Israelis in east Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Palestinian boycott was counterproductive and would only damage peace prospects.

“I don’t think by concentrating their efforts on boycotts they will achieve any of the political goals, if these still include reaching a peace agreement with Israel,” Palmor said.

Carrying out the boycott will be a challenge since the Palestinian economy relies heavily on Israeli manufacturers for many basic goods.

In other developments Tuesday, Israel said it had arrested a top Islamic Jihad militant in an overnight raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The military said the suspect, Salah Bukhari, had planned a 2002 suicide bombing that wounded 28 people in Tel Aviv and recruited another suicide bomber for an attack that was thwarted by Israeli security forces the following year. He also tried to carry out a car bombing and to kidnap Israeli soldiers, it said.

It said Bukhari had been in hiding for seven years. Although Israel and the Palestinians have increased security cooperation in the West Bank in recent years, the Israeli military continues to hunt down wanted militants.

Also Tuesday, Israel said it is treating five suspected swine flu cases from Gaza in hopes of containing an outbreak of the virus in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

The move was a rare loosening of the tight blockade Israel imposed on Gaza after Hamas militants seized the coastal area in June 2007. Israel usually only allows patients with life-threatening conditions into Israel.

Gaza health officials reported their first swine flu cases on Sunday. They say since then three people have died and nine others are hospitalized.

The virus arrived late to Gaza, likely because of the blockade that heavily restricts travel.

Israel and Hamas don’t speak to each other, and all contacts go through Hamas’ rival, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which governs from the West Bank.