Palestinians go door-to-door to combat settlement goods
May 19th, 2010
Palestinian workers destroy watermelons grown in Jewish settlements, near the West Bank city of Jenin, on Tuesday (AP photo by Mohammed Ballas)
RAMALLAH (AFP) - The Palestinians on Tuesday went door-to-door with their campaign against products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, infuriating settlers who called it "an act of terrorism".
"This house-to-house campaign is part of the national campaign to combat settlement products and today it has begun in all Palestinian cities," said the project's coordinator Haitham Kayali.
Kayali said “3,000 Palestinian youths would visit some 427,000 homes across the West Bank” to distribute booklets listing banned settlement goods and informing families about the dangers they pose to the struggle for statehood.
They will then hang posters outside the homes affirming that they are free of such goods.
The Yesha Council, the main settlers' organisation, decried the campaign as "an act of terrorism and ill will", called for the closure of "all Israeli ports to Palestinian imports and exports," and suggested Palestinian funds held in Israel should be used to compensate affected companies.
The Palestinians view the presence of some 500,000 Israeli settlers in more than 120 settlements scattered across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, as a major threat to the eventual creation of a viable state.
Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas approved a law banning trade in goods produced in settlements after a months-long campaign that has featured the public burning of such products.
Those found guilty of trading in settlement goods face two to five years in prison and up to $22,000 (16,400 euros) in fines.
The house-by-house campaign is being carried out by the Karameh (Dignity) Fund, established to promote the Palestinian economy and assist those harmed by the new restrictions on trade with the settlements.
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