Palestinians Take Steps To Boycott Settlements

As top Palestinian, Israeli and American officials claim to be attempting to “restart negotiations”, Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is simultaneously pursuing another: economic development that looks toward the hoped-for establishment of a Palestinian state. On January 12, Fayyad launched “The National Dignity Fund”, which was established as part of an accelerated effort to remove all products made in Israeli settlements from the Palestinian market. The goal of the campaign is to completely and permanently purge the Palestinian market of settlement-made products by the end of 2010.  In addition, Fayyad hopes that it can soon encourage Palestinians presently employed in the construction of Israeli settlements to leave those jobs by providing monetary compensation, job training, or a combination of the two. 

The National Dignity Fund aspires to provide a method of managing a Palestinian economy that is entangled with that of its occupier; it is tasked with several specific duties. First, it will launch a media and awareness-raising effort that will encourage the boycott of settlement-made products, as well as build a database that will provide daily updates on settlement production. The database will be made available to consumers locally, regionally and internationally in order to make it easier for them to identify and then avoid purchasing settlement-made products. Second, the fund will provide compensation for losses incurred to Palestinian businesses and traders who willingly stop carrying and dealing with settlement-made products. If funds allow, it will also compensate Palestinian laborers who leave their construction jobs in the settlements. Fayyad’s plan seeks to pressure Israel to abandon the settlement enterprise by withdrawing a large portion of the consumer base of its products and the labor force of the settlement construction industry.  In addition to implementing the ban on settlement products at home, Fayyad is also calling on the international community to support these efforts, calling it a “collective responsibility.”

The establishment of the National Dignity Fund is part of a larger plan set forth by Fayyad in August of last year, entitled “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State.” The focus of Fayyad’s plan is to proactively bolster, and continue building the institutions and infrastructure of, an independent Palestinian state, despite the stalling of the so-called “Peace Process”.  Fayyad’s plan states, “The 13^th Government [the current government of the PA] is committed to applying political pressure, backed by international support, to eliminate Israeli measures that are suffocating Palestinian economic recovery.” Along those same lines, his plan draws attention to the need to lift many of the restrictions and sanctions on the Palestinian economy imposed by the government of Israel, including the physical and economic isolation of East Jerusalem, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, checkpoints and closures within the West Bank, the wall, and continued settlement activity.  The plan lays out concrete steps that will allow the PA itself to deal with certain components of the occupation that limit the development and growth of human capital, making the transfer of goods nearly impossible and forcing Palestinians to take whatever work they can find, including work on settlement construction sites.

While the PA understands that it will not be able to force Israel to dismantle its wall or remove its checkpoints, it can mitigate some of the effects of these restrictions by initiating projects that will stimulate some sustainable economic growth and the development of some new industries. Fayyad’s plan encourages foreign and domestic investment by offering tax incentives. And it calls for an overhaul of the Palestinian educational system, which would develop the workforce necessary to sustain an expanded Palestinian economy, and allow Palestine to compete globally through the acquisition of knowledge and advanced technologies.

Fayyad's plan has drawn criticism from some Palestinians because of the support it has already received from American and Israeli politicians, and for failing to acknowledge the reality that the Israeli occupation still exists. However, the document does state that Palestinians’ highest national priority is ending the occupation and conceives of the project as a means of helping to do that, particularly by reforming many Palestinians’ relationships with Israeli settlements.  Such a focus on ending the occupation is wise, for, so long as Israel occupies Palestinian land, no state can ever exist, no economy can ever be built and no justice can ever be done.