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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org for Tuesday May 18th, 2010.
Settlements Boycott Campaign start in the West Bank, settlers outraged and troops detain more civilians. These stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The News Cast
Israeli settler groups called on the Israeli government to stop proximity talks with the Palestinians due to the settlements products boycott campaign that officially started today in the West Bank. The Campaign “House-to-House” was launched by the Palestinian National Pride fund. Hundreds of Palestinian men and women started on early Tuesday morning house-to-house visits in all Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
Their aim is to encourage Palestinians to boycott products of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The campaign is endorsed by both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Such a step is a big support to most Palestinian farmers, producers of dairy products and soft drinks as settlement products are their major competitor.
Palestinians consume near $500 million dollars of settlements products per year, according to Palestinian officials with an average of $1.4 million dollars every day. The settlement Yesha Council on Tuesday called the campaign an “economic terror,” and called upon Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the American mediated proximity talks with Fayyad as he is leading this campaign.
Also today Six Palestinian civilians were detained by Israeli troops during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities. The military invasions were focused mainly in Bethlehem area in the south and Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank.
Elsewhere a group of Palestinian fighters clashed on Tuesday with an invading Israeli force in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Salah Al Deen Brigade said in a press statement that a group of its fighters spotted an undercover Israeli military force while trying to infiltrate the evacuated settlement of Doghit near the northern Gaza Strip borders.
According to the statement, Palestinian fighters managed to detonate two homemade bombs near the invading forces and clashed with them for about 10 minutes before the Israeli soldiers retreated with a number of soldiers injured in the clashes. The Israeli military did not issue any comment regarding the incident.
Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org, this report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi.
