At a press conference in Ramallah today, Palestinian Authority Minister of Agriculture Hikmat Zeid announced that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would no longer allow the entry of Israeli agricultural produce into the PA.
Zeid said the move was in protest over Palestinian trucks not being allowed to transport goods among West Bank cities that have been sealed off. According to Zeid, this is causing heavy losses to Palestinian farmers, whose produce is rotting away and is eventually destroyed. He added that the move was also in protest over the “imbalance in agricultural trade relations”.
PA Deputy Minister of Agriculture Dr. Azzam Tbeleh told “Globes” that $300 million worth of damage had been caused to the Palestinian agricultural sector through May of this year. Tbeleh said Israel’s security forces, engaged in vegetation clearance operations, uprooted trees and agricultural crops, and destroyed $92 million worth of agricultural facilities. He claimed that Israel’s security forces uprooted 374,000 olive, citrus and almond trees.
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture – claimed by some sources to be on the verge of collapse – sent a letter of protest to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization about this matter. Israeli sources maintain that the Palestinian allegations are exaggerated, and that the number of uprooted trees is less than 10% of the figure cited by the Palestinians.
Under signed agreements, Israel markets to the PA 11 tons of vegetables per month, with most of the produce going to the Gaza Strip. Israel also sells the Palestinians sheep, goats and cattle for local consumption, and sells carnation shoots to the Palestinian flower export industry. The PA markets 6,200 tons of vegetables and 800 tons of fruit per month to Israel.
The agricultural boycott declaration joins a long series of declarations of boycotts by the Palestinians on various Israeli industrial products, as well as a boycott on using Israeli mobile telephone networks. These boycotts have not been enforced on the ground.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 16 August, 2001