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Mar 4, 2010
tit for tat
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) initiated a Knesset debate Wednesday on the Palestinian Authority's investment in a boycott of Israeli goods made in Judea and Samaria communities. “While [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is building heaps of hope with his plan for economic peace,” he said, “the Palestinian Authority is also building heaps – except these are heaps of Israeli goods that are being publicly burned in the PA.I like the concept. If the PA supports boycotting Israeli goods, we should, in return, boycott the PA goods and services."If a photograph of [PA Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad burning Israeli goods is not a formal enough statement, I do not know what is,” he stated. “Does Fayyad have to come to the Knesset and burn the goods here on the podium?”
Fayyad was photographed in January throwing Israeli products into a burning heap, in a public display held at the Arab village of Salfit.
MK Ariel said that if the government fails to respond to the PA boycott, he will “make every effort so that Israeli citizens boycott all Palestinian merchandise and fire [Arab] workers. Then we will see who has the upper hand.
“Not only does the PA abstain from condemning the boycott of Israeli goods – it even backs and supports it,” Ariel noted. “The supposedly moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad partook in a ceremony in which such goods were burned and the PA itself appointed a person who is responsible for the campaign to stop using Israeli goods. The PA boycotts goods openly and we prefer to shut our eyes.”
MK Ariel told the Knesset that he has repeatedly inquired with Israeli government officials – including the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor – as to what they intend to do about the matter, but that they avoided the issue, saying only that the PA had never made an official announcement on the subject.
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It really just means returning to avodah ivrit. How radical is that, really?
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, for observant Jews, many poskim are of the opinion that prioritizing to whom you give work, make purchases, etc. falls into the discussion of tzedakah. One should give tzedakah to 'their own' first. Similarly, one should prioritize hiring Hebrew labor and buying Israeli goods.
for sure. and for anyone who criticizes, it is a perfectly legitimate desire to ask people to buy "blue and white", just like in America there is a big movement to buy "america first" and buy American made products as a way of supporting your local businesses and stimulating the local economy and manufacturing cycles.
ReplyDeleteWhile avodah ivrit is nice, what is unique here is the demand that the government mandate avodah ivrit, rather than it just be from some people who want to support Israelis over Palestinians whenever possible
they buy a lot more from us than we buy from them
ReplyDeleteIsrael does have a very large unemployed, uneducated class of Jews who would be perfect for these manual labor jobs.
ReplyDeleteI have a far more democracy-oriented outlook than yourself on the conflict, but if non-Jewish labor was replaced with Haredim doing that labor (i.e. actually working), I'd be all in favor.