Settlement mayor slams Irish bill banning Israeli goods from West Bank

Settler leaders condemn legislation passed by the upper house of Ireland’s parliament that would criminalize the import of and trade with goods produced in the settlements.

“The European attempt to curtail settlement in Judea and Samaria will not succeed,” says Beit El mayor Shai Alon, who called the MPs who voted in favor of the measure “a group of anti-Semites.”

He claims that such boycotts end up harming the Palestinians who work in Israeli factories over the Green Line.

For their part, supporters of such targeted measures say that Israeli military rule in the West Bank cripples the Palestinian economy to the point where Israeli businesses are largely the only ones that can offer an adequate income to their employees.

Alon says a new construction project that is currently going up in Beit El is the settlers’ response to the Irish legislation.

— Jacob Magid