A year after the Israeli war on Gaza, the Jordanian Customs Department decides to exempt 2,500 Israeli items from taxes and fees. I honestly never knew we had 2,500 Israeli products in Jordan. We all have heard about Israeli produce like Fruits and Vegetables that were sold in the markets but people started boycotting them when it was known that they are the produce of illegal settlements in the West Bank. After all, The European Union (EU) has banned all produce from Illegal settlements in the West Bank to enter its territories so why can’t we? Though it is hard to really know the origin of a fruit or vegetable since it is displayed in boxes in the grocery stores and fruit stands. But if this product is going to cost less to import and sell in the Jordanian market than any other produce from Syria, Lebanon or the Jordan Valley then this will be an incentive for Jordanian merchants to buy more things from a state that is occupying and oppressing Arabs for the past 61 years. it is up to the merchant to decide if they want to boycott such products or not.
I do support having diplomatic relations with Israel, as it is the only way to deliver aid and help to the Palestinians in the West Bank and especially in Gaza. The economy of the West Bank will collapse if Jordan freeze the trade with the Palestinian Authority which is ofcourse under the control of Israeli authorities. If we had no ties with Israel, I wouldn't have been able to visit Palestine and the West Bank and spend all my money on Palestinian goods and businesses. I do support being smart in our relation with Israel.
But to encourage the settlers to export to Jordanian markets and take Jordan as a launch point to distribute their products to the Gulf and other regions on the expense of occupying and confiscating more Arab land then that is a red line that shouldn’t be crossed!
By encouraging Israeli products to be sold in Jordan, we are harming the Jordanian agriculture industry that is already suffering from the lack of water and support from the local government. The Jordanian agriculture industry has been relying on aid from the EU and US and other donors. The farmers are selling their products for very cheap prices in the Fruit and Vegetable central market to compete with other imported produce and the result is less income for the farmers and less quality. Many Jordanian farmers have left the land and migrated to the city to look for a better income. If you go to the Jordan Valley (Al Ghour) on a Friday, you can buy a whole box (6 – 8KGs) of Green Peppers for 2 JDs while 1 KG of the same produce is being sold at Safeway and Cosmo for 1$. The farmer gets poorer and the merchant gets richer! The new Tax exempt will not only harm the agriculture industry alone but the manufacturing industry too that has been affected lately with the world economy turmoil and the high prices of Oil and transportation fuel.
Thanks to the Custom Department we now have 2,500 new items to boycott. It will be up to our personal and ethical responsibility as a responsible Jordanian citizen to boycott products from Israel. While it can be easy to boycott products that are sold on our grocery shelves, it will be really complicated to boycott vegetables and Fruits, as the origin of these produces are not clear.
What I know now is that we need a lot of awareness for the public to support the local products.
Posts
7 comments:
its like eating flesh of brothers and sisters!
Moreover, dont forget the fact that many products are harvested on confiscated lands, and in settlements
i dont think youll find that most of our farms are in the territories.. maybe a few date farms along the jordan valley but thats not prime farming land.. and a lot of the settlers are not farmer types..
anyway im curious ali about this EU ban on west bank produce.. show me some links.. i know there have been some local campaigns but i have never heard of a ban..
does this level of inaccuracy ever bother you? or make you wonder what other subjects you may have distorted information about?
Lirun, I take it you're an israeli? Well let me tell you, as one actively involved in the boycott against Israeli goods...here in the UK the public largely dislike buying Israeli goods once they know the truth of what you do to palestinians. There IS a ban on ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT produce, and David Miliband has announced that it is undesirable to buy from illegal settlements because it contravenes international laws and EU trade agreements, i.e., settlement goods are not exempt from the tax tariffs as EU goods would be, and indeed produce from "Israel" (non settlement).
I think the inaccurracies lay with Israel - the sneaky way they pack things into bags labelled "Produce of the Jordan Valley" or "Produce of the West Bank" trying to fool the British public when really it's all come from settlements. Sneaky liars! You may use all devious methods but I - someone involved heavily in fresh produce - and others in the UK and EU know your game and it's only a matter of time before your world falls.
Solidarity with the Palestinian People!
What is Jordan doing?? Don't they even care about their own farmers?? What is the Jordanian government trying to do? Destroy their livelihoods with cheap, illegal produce from settler camps? it's a disgrace!! Apart from that, what about your care for the Palestinian people? These settlers are evil! They destroy thousands of trees, farms, land, homes of Palestinians every day, they seize fertile areas for settlements and grow their stuff - then JORDAN BUYS IT?!!
can anyone tell us what are those products ? i know mangos and kiwis are
Anonymous 5: It was listed in the local paper, I guess we need to Google it
Post a Comment