Tel Aviv, January 11 (RHC)-- An international campaign to boycott Israeli products is taking a heavy toll on illegal settlers in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank.
The income of the settlers who grow fresh products dropped by more than 14 percent or $29 million in the last year, mostly because Western European markets avoid buying the products, settlers said on Friday.
The boycott is particularly stronger in Britain and Scandinavia where the people are rejecting peppers, dates, grapes and fresh herbs produced by the settlers. "The damage is enormous," said David Elhayani, the head of the Jordan Valley’s 21 settlements with 7,000 settlers. He added: "In effect, today, we are almost not selling to the European market anymore."
Michael Deas, a Britain-based coordinator for the international boycott movement, said: "Supermarkets are now starting to realize that there's a really big reputational risk involved here."