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Arab restaurateurs feel bite of settlers' blacklist

The Samaria Settlers Committee, financed by Israeli taxpayers, has launched a defamatory campaign to boycott Arab-Israeli businesses they accuse of supporting terrorism.
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The stated goal of the Samaria Residents Committee, established in 2008, is to “serve the [Jewish] residents in Samaria and ward off — using a variety of means — any potential damage to the settlement enterprise there.” The committee is largely funded by the Samaria Regional Council and, by extension, Israeli taxpayers. Its director is the old-time right-wing activist Benny Katsover, who founded the settlement of Elon Moreh in the mid-1970s and is considered by settlers to be the founder of the settlement movement in Samaria.

Why there is a need for a committee to serve the settlers in Samaria, when that is already the purpose of the regional council, remains unclear. Some of the committee’s activities include giving guided tours of the region to journalists and politicians, planting thousands of trees and painting junctions in the area blue and white. All this is to show everyone, in case they fail to notice, that as far as the settlers are concerned, not only are the settlements an integral part of the State of Israel, but they also strengthen it.

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