Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy Hasan Abu Libdeh arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon to participate in a seminar on the PA's boycott of settlement goods.
Organized by the German Friedrich Ebert Fund, Tel Aviv University, and the Peres Center For Peace, Abu Libdeh said his attendance was meant to inform Israel that the settlement enterprise and its economy in the West Bank "are obstacles to the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Israel has responded critically to the PA's boycott which Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced in January 2010, and later implemented across the West Bank in May.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to the move that the PA was opposing economic peace with Israel and is "taking steps that in the end hurt themselves," after the House to House anti-settlement goods campaign was launched, where a list of embargoed produce was handed down to residents across the West Bank.
"Israel is aiming for peace and economic prosperity," Netanyahu said, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote. "The Palestinians must decide if they are aiming for peace or not."
The Israeli premier's comments follow the launch of the Palestinian Authority's House to House anti-settlement goods campaign, aimed at riding Palestinian homes in the West Bank of illegal settlement produce and to get consumers to opt for Palestinian goods.
"We have removed checkpoints, eased the lives of Palestinians and are working all the time to advance the Palestinian economy," Netanyahu told Likud members at a party meeting.
The seminar was organized to highlight the aims of the PA boycott, said Abu Libdeh, who said it was " a duty of every defender of Palestinian rights."
Israeli Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman and Mahdi Al-Masri, the chairman of the Palestinian Federation of Industries, were also in attendance.
The PA said the boycott would be reinforced in the West Bank, not only to highlight the illegality of settlements, but to offer Palestinians the opportunity to provide alternative produce locally and internationally.
Residents have been encouraged to sign the Karama Pledge, vowing to clear their homes of settlement produce. The PA will also ban working in settlements by 2011, with its Ministry of Social Affairs announcing recently that women were able to apply for alternative employment as the new ban is enforced.
Rightist members of the Israeli government have said the boycott is a breach of the Oslo Accords and the late Paris Agreement on economic trade between the PA and Israel, and described the move as tantamount to incitement.
However, under both accords, produce from West Bank settlements are not deemed part of the Israeli economy, as they are a contravention of international law. The PA has reiterated that the ban solely applies to illegal West Bank goods, and not Israeli produce.
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