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Why Is Fayyad Burning Israeli Products?

(Jerusalem Post) Dalia Itzik - Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was photographed tossing Israeli products into a large bonfire, an act that involves more than a small degree of incitement against a country with whom, so he claims, he wishes to establish peaceful and neighborly relations. The PA government has been running an aggressive campaign over recent months against products that originate in industrial areas beyond the "green line." The boycott is a political act, by which the PA wishes to compete with Hamas for public support, and does so using Hamas tools of incitement and provocation. The economies of Israel and the PA are highly interlinked and will remain so even when an arrangement is reached based on the principle of two states for two peoples. Some 25,000 Palestinians employed in Israeli factories beyond the "green line" have no other alternative employment. If their government succeeds in destabilizing their employers, they will be left with no income. Particularly now, as proximity talks develop, one might expect the Palestinians to make efforts to calm things down, to strengthen relations between the two nations and not to be dragged into a campaign of incitement. The writer, a former minister and Knesset speaker, is chairperson of the Kadima Knesset faction.
2010-06-15 10:46:40
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