PMW bulletin cited in Times of Israel article on PA campaign against Rami Levy supermarket chain
Abbas said to block ‘settler’ supermarket mogul
from peace meeting
Business forum holds talks with Palestinian leader, reportedly after excluding Rami Levy, who has opened multiple stores in the West Bank
Breaking the Impasse, a forum of Israeli and Palestinian business and community leaders that is pushing for a renewal of the peace process, met with Abbas last Thursday after agreeing to leave Levy out, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Sunday.
Levy owns a nationwide supermarket chain, including six stores in the West Bank that employ and serve both Israelis and Palestinians.
Abbas and the PA consider Levy a “settler.” The Palestinian leader was adhering to the PA’s official hard-line stance against Levy, who has irked the Palestinian leadership since his first branch opened in the West Bank over a decade ago.
The Palestinian Authority’s official television channel broadcast last month an image that equated shopping at a new mall in East Jerusalem, built by Levy, with treason.
“Do not be the occupation’s partner in the Judaization of the city,” the ad said, according to Palestinian Media Watch, an organization that monitors the Palestinian press. “Economic normalization is treason.”
[https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-said-to-block-settler-supermarket-mogul-from-peace-meeting/]