PA prime minister calls for Palestinian, global ban on goods produced in settlements

             PM Minister Salam Fayyad is urging intense action against products manufactured in settlements, calling to remove them from markets in the Palestinian Authority and around the world. Fayyad on Saturday said that the PA is determined to move ahead with the boycott and called on other countries to forbid their citizens from using these products. During a seminar organized by al-Quds University in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Fayyad said his cabinet was working intensely to implement a law that would forbid the sale of products from the "occupied territories" and to ensure that other world governments fulfill their obligations according to the Hague Conventions. Fayyad also claimed that "the settlements and their products violate the Fourth Geneva Convention." The Palestinian PM called on PA residents to strictly adhere to the decision to boycott these products and encouraged the use of locally manufactured products instead. "This campaign and its success require a collective national responsibility on behalf of the Palestinian people, and will also require creating hostile public opinion around the world toward the settlements and their merchandise," he said. Last month, Fayyad joined local activists in the Palestinian town of Salfit and threw boycotted items manufactured in Israeli settlements into a bonfire. The boycott was officially declared in December when products with an estimated value of one million dollars were removed from shops throughout the PA. The products included food items, cosmetics and electric appliances that are manufactured in settlements. The Palestinians claimed that these products harmed the local economy and caused it to lose an estimated half a billion dollars. (22,15)