Published Tuesday 18/05/2010 (updated) 20/05/2010 08:58
Bethlehem/Jenin – Ma’an – Residents received hand-delivered lists of blacklisted settlement products on Tuesday as the Palestinian Authority kicked off its door-to-door anti-settlement produce campaign throughout the West Bank, comprising the first of several pamphlets to be distributed as part of the House to House program.
The list, part of an 88-page guide on how to participate in the boycott, includes logos of well-known brand names, furnishing companies, farms, dairy produce, water, wine, household fixtures, toys as well as plastics and surgical equipment manufactured on illegal West Bank settlements.
Produced by the National Dignity Fund, the pamphlet is interspersed with guidelines on how to spot the illegal products either by the logos re-printed in the guide or by manufacturer.
Consumers are asked to carefully read the label of goods with the 729 bar-code, designating goods made in Israel, to pinpoint where the goods were made to exclude settlement manufacturers, and are reminded that goods made in Israel remain permissible.
In addition to goods, the guide reminds readers to boycott all settlement-related services and manufacturers.
The list includes: Abadi Bakery, Maya Foods, Tekoa Products, Eden Water, Tea Adenem, AHAVA products, Avgol Nonwoven Industries, Golans, Adumim Food Ingredients, Carmel Wine and Culture, Barkan, General Mills, Pillsbury, Field Produce Ltd, among others.
Readers are further reminded that in accordance with the Paris Accords, the trade deal ratified between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, that all Israeli goods sold in the occupied Palestinian territories must have Arabic labeling, without which the goods are illegal.
Residents are also asked to sign the Karama (dignity) pledge which reads: “We the people of Palestine, of all religions, affiliations, professions, and ages, have all come together to affirm our desire and determination to rise up, and shiver off the effects of settlement contamination in our Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps, first and foremost, via replacing settlement products in our local markets with those that are proudly produced in Palestine, with Palestinian Hands!”
As the PA’s boycott campaign enters full swing, customs officials confiscated and destroyed over 10 tons of watermelons produced on West Bank settlements in Jenin and Bethlehem, customs director Amin Abu Aqel told Ma’an.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched the National Dignity Fund in January in a bid to rid the Palestinian market of settlement produce, encourage consumers to opt for locally made produce, and encourage the international community to buy Palestinian goods instead of those manufactured by Israeli companies on land occupied by Israel in 1967.
A backlash among Israeli factory owners on illegal settlements has also entered full-throttle, with industrialists urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refuse to take part in proximity talks, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Factory owners told the daily that the boycott was deemed a “hate campaign” and said it was a political move that would “blow up in Salam Fayyad’s face.”
The website My Israel has launched a counter-campaign. “We won’t let them subdue us,” one campaign leader explained to the daily. “When their products are boycotted they will feel the financial damage ten times worse and come back with their tails between their legs to ask for things return to the way they were. Then the world will see who the enlightened ones are and who the warmongers are.”
