Israel Blocks Palestinian Agricultural Exports
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli authorities have blocked Palestinian exports from going abroad via Jordan, a report said.
While an official Israeli ban on Palestinian exports is set to be implemented starting on Sunday, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Economy said in a statement carried by Wafa news agency that several trucks filled with Palestinian agricultural products had already been turned back by Israeli authorities at crossings with Jordan.
The only crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan is manned by Israeli authorities, which control the entry and exit of people and goods into the occupied Palestinian territory.
The move came after the PA earlier this week announced it was banning a number of Israeli products from entering the Palestinian market, itself in reaction to the decision by Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on January 31 to halt the import of West Bank products into Israel.
Bennett's order, meanwhile, came after the PA had boycotted the import of Israeli cattle for three months.
With all borders controlled by Israel, the Palestinian economy is highly vulnerable to Israeli sanctions. According to Wafa, Palestinian agricultural exports amounted to $130m in 2018, with two-thirds of these exports going to Israel.
The trade war comes as Palestinian leadership has categorically rejected Trump’s "Peace to Prosperity" plan, which proposes that Israel formally annex East Jerusalem and some two-thirds of the West Bank, in exchange for a fragmented, demilitarized Palestinian state with only limited right of return for Palestinian refugees currently abroad.
Critics of the so-called "deal of the century" have said the plan in effect seeks to officialize a system of apartheid.