News

 The Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)*, issued a joint statement today outlining the call by Brazilian Parliament for the freeze of the Israel-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement.

This decision is an enormous blow for Israel's economy and foreign relations. It poses a massive stumbling block for the enactment of the agreement, which since its signing in 2007 has been stalled due to a lack of ratification by Mercosur member countries. The Mercosur is one of the world's most quickly expanding markets and the fifth largest economy in the world. Israeli exports to the Mercosur amounted nearly 600 million dollars in 2006.

Arlene Clemesha, professor of Arab History at the University of São Paulo (USP) and part of the United Nations Coordinating Network on Palestine, argued against the tokenism of ratifying the agreement with the exclusion of settlement products, warning that it is impossible to separate the two as Israel has a history of marketing settlement products as Israeli ones. Instead, she said, the path to peace requires international forces to compel Israel to end the military occupation of Palestinian territory.