Fayyad calls on world to boycott settlement products

PA prime minister thanks S. African official for country's recent decision to outlaw labeling of settler products as "Made in Israel."

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Prime Minister Salam Fayyad 370 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Prime Minister Salam Fayyad 370
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday called on the international community to follow South Africa’s example and boycott products of Israeli settlements.
Fayyad praised South Africa’s recent determination to outlaw the labeling of settler products as “Made in Israel.” The South African Ministry of Trade and Industry last month published a notice in the Government Gazette requiring traders “not to incorrectly label products that originate from the Occupied Palestinian Territory as products of Israel.”
Fayyad met in Ramallah with the head of the South Africa Representative Office and thanked him for the decision.
The PA prime minister expressed hope that such boycotts would be endorsed by the entire international community.
He also hailed “extraordinary historic relations between Palestine and South Africa.”
In a related development, the PA decided last weekend to ban Israeli potatoes from markets in Nablus.
The decision was made at the request of PA Minister of Agriculture Walid Assaf, said a spokesman for the Nablus governor. The ban, he explained, was designed to protect Palestinian farmers and allow them to market their produce at “reasonable prices.”