Israeli Arabs Join Palestinian Boycott

It’s not really surprising to find Israeli-Arabs joining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s call for a boycott of products made on Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Still, it is provocative to read the head of a committee in one Arab Israeli town identify Israeli Arabs as “part of the Palestinian people.”

The chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip—that’s itself something of a provocative name; there isn’t a Jewish community of the Gaza Strip anymore—accused the boycott of violating a 1994 agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and called on the Israeli government to use some of the money it transfers to the Palestinians each month to compensate settlers harmed by the boycott.

Notably, he affixed prime blame not on Abbas but on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whom many have welcomed for his emphasis on West Bank Palestinian autonomy. Part of autonomy, of course, means not having Jewish settlers in your midst, much less giving them business.

“What we are seeing here is a complete identification, and not for the first time, by the Arab population of Israel with the Palestinian Authority,” the Council chairman warned. Indeed.

Arab Israelis Boycott W. Bank Good [JPost]
Earlier: The Deceptively Controversial P.M.