SALFIT, West Bank (Reuters) – Prime Minister Salam Fayyad threw a box of settler products on a bonfire this week as Palestinians pushed a campaign to “cleanse” their markets of goods made by Israelis living in the West Bank.

Fayyad said if Palestinians wanted to persuade the European Union to ban trade with the settlements -- considered illegal under international law -- they would have to do it themselves first.
Fayyad's government has confiscated merchandise worth $2 million since November.
“This is a merciless campaign and there will be a zero tolerance for those who deal with this trade,” said Abdelhafiz Nofal, a senior official at the Palestinian economy ministry.
The campaign does not include products from Israel itself… Campaigns by some local groups to boycott all trade with Israel have had very little success.
Palestinian officials estimate that Israel-run companies in the settlements sell goods worth $500 million per year into the West Bank market, from construction materials to nuts.
Cutting off this trade will undermine settler viability in the Israeli-occupied territories that Palestinians want for a state, the campaigners believe.
“This is an expression of our rejection to settlement activity in all its forms,” said Fayyad as fire consumed a heap of goods at Salfit, a West Bank town ringed by settlements which include industrial operations.
If Palestinians are allowed to carry on buying settler goods, they will “cement the economic activity of settlements and settlers,” he said.
“What we are looking for is to have a state without settlements and without walls and what we are doing in Salfit is an important step on this path,” Fayyad said.