Boycott Israeli settlements: Palestinian UN envoy

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has called on the world to boycott products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“You have to get ready to start adopting laws in order not to accept or allow anything that comes from settlements, because what comes from an illegal thing is illegal,” Riyad Mansour said during a meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Tuesday.

Mansour called on countries to follow Europe and South Africa while he referred to the Netherlands where he said five banks are not doing business with Israeli banks because they deal with settlements.

“We expect all banks in your region… to take such steps,” he said.

On March 28, in a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, 29 members of the European Parliament called for an action to discourage European companies from trading with firms based in Israeli settlements.

The EU lawmakers say any economic relations with Israeli firms involved in settlement construction will contribute to Tel Aviv’s violation of international law and human rights abuses.

Israel, which is facing isolation over its aggressive policies against Palestinians, is mainly under fire over its ongoing illegal settlement projects.

The EU has also blocked all grants and funding to any Israeli entity based in the illegal settlements.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

Meanwhile, Mansour stated that the Palestinians would resume US-brokered talks with Israel, before they are scheduled to end on April 29, only if the Israelis are prepared to negotiate “in good faith”.

He warned that if Tel Aviv is not ready to do so, the Palestinians would be forced “to move into the next stage of holding them accountable for all of their illegal behavior in all fronts, politically, diplomatically and legally.”

The Israeli-Palestinian Authority talks reached a new deadlock when the Tel Aviv regime refused to free the last tranche of 104 Palestinian prisoners in late March as part of a deal for the resumption of the talks.

The move prompted acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to respond by signing letters of accession to 15 international conventions on April 1.