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THE WORLD
DIGEST
Failing all else, Palestinians try boycott
Peaceful West Bank protest is the latest effort in the protracted struggle to end occupation, gain statehood
by Janine Zacharia
SUZANNE PLUNKETT/REUTERS
Ed Miliband: Sibling rivalry.
BRITAIN
Ed Miliband to run for Labor’s top job
Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown’s former point man on climate change, announced Saturday that he will run for leader of Britain’s Labor Party, challenging his older brother, former foreign minister David Miliband, for the job. The fraternal fight is now set to shape the race to fill the post va- cated when Brown stepped down last week as prime minister — and head of the party — after a major defeat at the polls. Al- though the younger Miliband, 40, is not as well known as his 44- year-old older brother, he enjoys more support among the labor unions, which are often key to winning the party’s internal elec- tions. A vote is expected this sum- mer. The two brothers might also face other challengers. In making the announcement Saturday, Ed Miliband joked that his mother was supporting neither him nor his brother, but left-wing law- maker Jon Cruddas, who is ru- mored to be running. The winner would lead a party now in opposi- tion, after 13 years in power, fol- lowing the formation last week of a historic governing coalition be- tween the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
— Anthony Faiola
Ash threatens air travel in Brit-
ain, Germany: Volcanic ash from Iceland could disrupt air travel in Britain and Germany in the next few days. British officials said parts of the country’s airspace — including England’s southeast, home to Europe’s busiest airport, Heathrow — could be closed be- ginning Sunday. German officials warned of possible disruptions starting Monday. In Iceland, offi- cials said that the intensity of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption had not changed but that wind condi- tions had.
Former Mexico presidential
candidate missing: Diego Fer- nandez de Cevallos, 69, a 1994 Mexican presidential candidate who has remained a power bro- ker in the ruling National Action Party, was missing amid signs of violence, the federal Attorney General’s office said Saturday. Prosecutors said his car was found near his ranch in the cen- tral state of Queretaro. It said some of his belongings were found inside the car as well as un- specified “signs of violence.”
— From news services
maaleh adumim, west bank
—In Mishor Adumim, a bougain- villea-lined industrial zone inside this West Bank Jewish settlement, at least 17 businesses have closed since Palestinians began boycott- ing its products several months ago. For the Israelis, it’s “an insuffer- able situation,” according to Avi Elkayam, who represents the set- tlement’s 300 factory owners. But for Palestinians, it might be the strategy they have been looking for. For more than 40 years, Pales- tinians have sought to end Israeli occupation and gain statehood. International terrorism, nearly two decades of negotiations and two major waves of mass revolt have not brought measurable progress toward those goals. Now Palestinians are looking at the success of their boycott as evi- dence that a campaign focused on peaceful protest, rather than vio- lent struggle, could finally yield results. The strategy originated at the
grass-roots level but has increas- ingly been embraced by the Pales- tinian leadership. Top officials have shown up at anti-settlement demonstrations led by local activ- ists trying to isolate Israel glob- ally in a campaign roughly mod- eled on the South African anti- apartheid struggle. “We are definitely committed
to a path of nonviolent resistance and defiance in the face of the set- tlement enterprise, and we are defiantly expressing our right to boycott those products and I be- lieve it is working,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,
“We are definitely committed to a path of
nonviolent resistance and
defiance . . .”
— Salam Fayyad,
Palestinian prime minister
who has attended bonfires of set- tlement products, said in an in- terview last week. “We will con- tinue to do more.” But Fayyad represents only a
portion of the Palestinian politi- cal spectrum. Members of the Is- lamist Hamas movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, have continued to advocate violence even as they rhetorically embrace the idea of boycotts and other forms of peaceful protest. That has led some observers to wonder whether the experiment
SUNDAY,MAY 16, 2010
NASSER ISHTAYEH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians burn products from Jewish settlements in the West Bank town of Salfit after starting a boycott several months ago.
will deteriorate into another armed uprising, especially if new U.S.-mediated peace talks lead nowhere. AWestern diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the nonviolent-resistance campaign could backfire, hurting prospects for a breakthrough in negotiations. “All of these efforts are seen by the Israelis as an effort by the Palestinians to isolate Is- rael,” the diplomat said. “One has to question whether this will be effective or whether it will push the Israeli government into a more reluctant mood.”
Motives in question
The boycott, along with a forth- coming ban on Palestinian em- ployment in the settlements, has already led Israeli officials to question publicly the motives of their Palestinian counterparts. “Are they for partnership or
struggle?” Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said at a news conference Monday. While Israel tries to ensure that Pales- tinians have jobs, he added, Pales- tinian officials “try to raise un- employment by stopping them from working.” Dealing in settlement goods has technically been illegal under Palestinian law since 2005, but Fayyad has pushed for enforce- ment only since the start of the year. The hope is that the boycott will encourage the international
Palestinian markets constitutes a small fraction of its $200 billion annual gross domestic product. Still, officials worry about the campaign morphing into a broad- er boycott of all Israeli goods. In addition to forcing factories
JANINE ZACHARIA/THE WASHINGTON POST
Avi Elkayam represents 300 factory workers at the Mishor Adumim industrial park.
community to adopt a stronger stance against settlements while helping end the Palestinian econ- omy’s dependence on Israel. A dispute over settlement con-
struction paralyzed peacemaking efforts for the first year of the Obama administration, which views such activity as illegitimate. Israel, under U.S. pressure, has agreed to a 10-month freeze on construction in the West Bank — but not East Jerusalem — that ex- pires in September. Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas signed a law last month making it a crime, punish- able by up to two years in prison and a $14,000 fine, to sell settle- ment products. For Israel, the val- ue of settlement products sold in
in West Bank settlements to shut down or relocate inside Israel, the campaign is deterring other Is- raeli businesses from moving to the West Bank industrial zones. The zones were originally set up to be closer to Palestinian labor- ers, many of whom are denied permits to work in Israel proper.
Ripple effects
The Palestinian Authority has
confiscated and destroyed $5 mil- lion worth of settlement prod- ucts; by the end of the year, it will be illegal for Palestinians to work in the settlements. The Authority has established a national “em- powerment” fund to help create other jobs for the approximately 25,000 Palestinians who work in the settlements, but that remains a long-term proposition. For now, many Palestinian workers see no choice but to earn a living how- ever they can.
Abdel Aziz Abu Isnaineh, who distributes plumbing pipes and faucets manufactured in an in- dustrial zone near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, was told he had until June 20 to sell his in- ventory of pipes. After that, what- ever is left unsold will be con-
fiscated and he will be fined. To Jihad Shaheen, a Palestinian
grocer, the boycott seems point- less. In April, a garbage truck drove up to his shop, and workers trashed 1,700 pounds of water- melons he had received from a settlement distributor.
“If he had said all products
from Israel were prohibited, I would understand,” Shaheen, 42, said of the inspector who came with them, adding that a West Bank-only boycott “makes no sense.” A stone-cutting factory here in
the Maaleh Adumim settlement closed this month because Pales- tinian inspectors were routinely intercepting supply trucks, mak- ing business untenable, accord- ing to Elkayam, the factory own- ers’ representative. The aban- doned facility is now a concrete shell filled with bird droppings. A “for rent” sign is posted outside. Elkayam said that in addition to the boycott, factories have been hurt by an Israeli court order to pay Palestinians who work in the industrial zone the minimum wage. He wants Israel to offer the owners tax breaks or some other kind of support. “If they don’t, it will be too late,” he said. “Everyone will close.”
zachariaj@washpost.com
Special correspondents Samuel Sockol and Sufian Taha contributed to this report.
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