Palestine Protects Livestock Farmers, Bans Israeli Imports

On Thursday, Palestine announced that the government will put in place a counter-ban on the importation on several categories of produce from Israeli.

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The decision was made “in line with the principle of protecting the local products and Palestinian farmers, and in fulfillment of the government’s policy to support the resilience of the farmers,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Last week, Israel effect a ban on Palestinian agricultural products after Palestine disallowed Israeli sheep into the local markets to protect domestic livestock farmers.

In the statement released by the Palestinian Government the authorities detailed that “in light of the unilateral Israeli decision to prevent the entry of Palestinian vegetables and fruits into Israeli markets, the government decided to ban all kinds of Israeli vegetables, fruits and poultry,” Wafa news agency.

Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel accuses the Palestinian Authority of unilaterally violating their bilateral trade agreement.

The Israeli ban on Palestinian goods will reportedly cost Palestine some US$270,000 daily.

In 2017, Palestinian vegetable exports to Israeli totaled nearly US$56 million, while fruit reached US$5 million.

Palestine’s imports were US$5.8 billion worth of goods to Israel’s $3.2 billion, last year.