MembersNew Shopping Mall for Israelis and Palestinians

This new mall catering to both Jews and Arabs is due to be built soon in the capital’s Atarot industrial zone. It will cost over $57 million and offer space for 50 stores.

Urgent messages on social media are urging Palestinians to boycott the new mall, which will offer the populations of the Israeli capital of Jerusalem and the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah to again mingle. Flyers distributed in Palestinian neighborhoods are calling it a religious, national and moral obligation to spurn the very notion of working and shopping with Jews. Opponents maintain that the mall is just another part of Israel’s scheme to “Judaize” all of Jerusalem. “By buying Israeli products we are advancing the Israeli conquest,” read a statement from a Palestinian group called the National and Islamic Fighting Forces in the Conquered City of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority is also supporting the boycott call via its official news agency Wafa: “Economic normalization with Israel is betrayal.” Pressure is now being exerted upon the Arab franchisees to terminate their agreements with Jewish partners.

Many of the...