And that brings the arguments of not buying Palestinian produce so as not to support terrorism (in addition to claims of tainted vegetables).
The argument in return is that these people only care about not buying vegetables for the Palestinians during the shmitta year, but during the other 6 years they indiscriminately buy vegetables in the supermarkets and shuks without even knowing where the vegetables come from, and unknowingly they are buying those same Palestinian vegetables.
Those days might be over.
According to INN, the Palestinian Authority implemented a ban on Israeli agricultural imports, specifically banning cattle and livestock from Israel, last September.
The defense establishment has tried for months to persuade the Palestinians to revoke the boycott, yet to date they have refused to do so. This has caused a disparity in trade, with the Israelis continuing to import from the Palestinians but the Palestinians refusing to import from Israel. Israeli farmers and breeders have bee suffering because of it.
This is a basic trade issue that countries all around the world deal with on a regular basis.
Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett has now decided to reciprocate with a boycott of Palestinian produce.
So, if the boycott holds, and if the Palestinians do not revoke their boycott (which would lead to Israel revoking theirs), this coming shmitta will require other solutions, and will also see the end of this oft-repeated argument...
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Not sure how this will play out, my understanding is that there are certain produce such as cucumbers that are not economical to grow in Israel, and almost 100% come from Gaza or the PA. I Unless things have changed in the past few years, I think that the only cucumbers grown by Israelis are the cucumbers for pickling in Kibbutz Yavne, or small organic operations. None of the cucumbers in the supermarket come from Jewish owned businesses.
ReplyDeleteIf we banned vegetables from the PA, would that mean Israel would start importing cucumbers from elsewhere, or would Israeli farms start growing them? In either case that would lead to a massive increase in price, not to mention a hit to the Palestinian economy, which is not in anyone's interest.
the hit to the Palestinian economy seems to be exactly what bennett wants, in exchange to the hit the Israeli economy is taking by their ban. If the hit is significant enough, the Palestinians will drop the boycott and we can all live happily ever after together..
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