A multi-branch team of PA agents found an Arab-driven car carrying 20,000 shekels’ worth of cleaning products several days ago. The “contraband” was manufactured in the Jewish community of Karnei Shomron… and was therefore promptly confiscated and destroyed… PA police, tax officials, customs agents, and PA Preventive Security personnel banded together to carry out a recent PA Finance Ministry decision… The destruction operation was described in the PA as a “Palestinian national moral obligation” in safeguarding PA “interests and its economy.”
… they really could have used those supplies for that shiny new Palestinian city they’re building:
The construction of the new Palestinian city Rawabi, north of Ramallah, is proceeding… Israel is not obstructing the progress of this important project. Israel has repeatedly declared that it views economic peace as an essential stage on the path to political peace… Improvement of living standards there will assist in lowering the value of violence, will encourage moderation, will allow the incremental building of confidence and will portend a horizon of hope.
The factory which produced the goods, by the by, was owned by Israeli-Arabs who just happened to be located in a Jewish community. Which means that these tools are now destroying goods that were produced by Arabs living in West Bank territory that the Palestinians claim for… Arabs.
No word yet on whether Prime Minister Fayyad – the ne plus ultra of Palestinian moderation, the one the State Department holds up us the linchpin of Palestinian good governance – showed up this time to burn the Jewish goods. He was certainly there last time:
Your tax dollars at work (h/t: Doris).
References:
* PA Agents Destroy 20,000 Shekels’ Worth of Jewish Products [A7]
* Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press [Yisrael Hayom via MFA]
* U.S. warns it won’t recognize PA unity gov’t sans Fayyad [Ha'aretz]
* Fayyad helps burn settlement products [YNet]
* Obama Bundles $200 Million Palestinian Aid Into Emergency Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental [MR]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Palestinians
* Israeli-Arab Peace Process
* Israel
