Arab-Jewish party declares support for boycotting Israeli companies in settlements

The Arab-Jewish Hadash Party declared on Tuesday that it supports boycotting Israeli companies in the settlements and the three other parties of the Joint List confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that they also back this position.“Hadash welcomes all expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people in its just struggle, including boycotting commercial enterprises that are involved in the occupation and in violation of the Palestinian people’s rights,” the party said. “This is a legitimate manner of civil resistance.”“Hadash calls on all nations of the world, on associations and labor unions, to intensify the struggle for a just peace in the region, based on respect for the rights of its peoples and on cessation of all acts of injustice, repression and racism,” it said.Hadash is the only mixed party of the Joint List and tends to take more moderate positions on issues compared to the other three Arab parties: the southern Islamic Movement’s UAL, Ta’al, and Balad.A Hadash source told the Post that this is the first time that Hadash as a party has come out officially to support a settlement products boycott, adding that there were voices in the party that had supported it before.The Hadash declaration only relates to goods from the settlements, and the party does not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement or a general boycott of Israel, the source clarified.Representatives from the three Arab parties of the Joint List were quick to respond to inquiries by the Post that they, of course, support Hadash’s boycott call.Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi has been calling for a boycott of the settlements for some time. In a speech in the European Parliament last year, he called for a boycott of the settlements and their produce as part of a legitimate struggle against what he called occupation.“It is important and moral that there be instructions to boycott all settlement products,” Tibi said at the time.“Supporting settlement products is immoral and against international law.”Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.