Palestinians Reject Israeli Demands, Threaten Boycott
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NABLUS, West Bank — Rejecting Israeli demands for more security cooperation, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said Saturday that his people would rather give up progress made under the 1993 Oslo peace accords than knuckle under to Israeli economic pressure.
Economic advisor Khaled Islam said the Palestinians are considering boycotting Israeli products as a countermeasure to Israeli economic sanctions.
Arafat told Palestinian intellectuals and journalists in Nablus that the sanctions are a declaration of war “to humiliate the Palestinian people, starve the Palestinian people and make them kneel.”
Arafat warned that Palestinians are prepared to return to the hardships of the years before the signing of the Oslo accords. “We are willing to wipe it all out and start anew,” he said.
After twin suicide-bombings July 30 that killed 16 people in a market in Jerusalem, Israel closed its borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, blocking 100,000 Palestinian workers from reaching their jobs in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the sanctions will not be lifted until Arafat cracks down on Islamic militants.
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