Palestine welcomes Amazon's decision to undo discriminatory shipment policy

Palestine on Wednesday welcomed U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon's decision to undo its discriminatory shipment policy in the occupied West Bank.

According to the lastest shipment policy, all customers, both Palestinians and Israelis, in the occupied Palestinian territories can enjoy the same free shipment service.

Last November, Amazon began providing free shipping to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for orders of 49 U.S. dollars or more. However, Palestinians in the West Bank, if they put their addresses in the list of Palestinian territories, need to pay for the shipment.

On Feb. 26, Palestinian Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara and Minister of Economy Khaled al-Osaily signed a joint letter to Amazon, calling on it to retract its shipping policy toward the West Bank.

The letter rejected the company's discrimination policy that favors illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories over the indigenous Palestinian population and threatened to take legal action.

Israeli settlement activity is considered illegal under international law and has been one of the major hurdles to the peace talks between Palestine and Israel that have stalled since 2014.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)