Nablus governor bans Israeli potatoes, PA violating Oslo

From Ma'an:

The governor of Nablus on Wednesday prevented Israeli potatoes from being introduced to the Palestinian market, in line with an agriculture ministry decision issued this month.

Maj.-Gen. Jibrin al-Bakri said the decision aimed to protect national products and farmers' livelihoods.

The ministry decided this month to remove foreign produce from Palestinian markets, and the governor was implementing that decision, he told Ma'an.

The PA is trying to skirt around existing agreements that prohibit the PA from boycotting Israeli goods by pretending that they want to stop all imported produce.

But a glance at the speech by the PA Agriculture Minister shows beyond any doubt that this is meant to be a boycott to hurt Israel and to stop supporting "Zionist farms."

Up until now the PA was careful to say that they were only against "settler goods" and not Israeli products altogether because they did not want to violate signed agreements. It looks as if they are now no longer concerned about such public violations of Oslo.

When the economic agreement was forged between Israel and the PA, Israel let it be known that if the Palestinian Arabs wanted to implement boycotts or similar measures against Israel, then Israel would reserve the right to stop Palestinian Arabs from working in Israel - and a huge part of the Palestinian Arab economy is dependent on people working in Israel and for Israelis.