Palestinians told to quit Israeli jobs

The Palestinian Authority has set a 2011 deadline for tens of thousands of Palestinians to quit working at construction sites in Israeli settlements.

"There are currently 25,000 Palestinians who make their living by working in Israeli settlements," the Palestinian Authority's Minister of National Economy Hasan Abu Libda told Ma'an news agency on Thursday.

Libda said while Palestinian law prohibited its people from working at Israeli settlements, a large number of people had left their jobs to work at the illegal construction sites.

"They should stop as they are not any different from 200,000 other unemployed workers," the Palestinian official stressed, urging laborers to find another solution for the issue.

According to the official, the Palestinian Authority is planning to stop all economic relations with those residing in settlements in seven months as part of the efforts to create job opportunities for the unemployed and protect national interests.

"So long as Israel continues to discourage the Palestinian national economy, the only alternative is to get the citizens to consume national products."

Libda said the Palestinian Authority should raise the level of consuming national products -- currently standing at 18 percent -- to 40 percent in order to be able to create 50,000 to 60,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, Labor Minister Ahmad Majdalani asserted that Palestinian law did not prohibit people from working in settlements, explaining further that only the import of settlement products were banned.

He, however, urged workers to stop such activities on their own free will out of moral and political considerations.

Israeli settlement expansions on Palestinian lands in the West Bank -- particularly in annexed east al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- has been one of the key issues hindering the Middle East peace process.

Palestinians argue that the ongoing construction activities eat up the land on which their future Palestinian state is to be built and thus render the concept of a two-state solution meaningless.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125613§ionid=351020202.