Al-Masri said in a press statement that the PA would create jobs for 6,000 of the 25,000 Palestinians who now work in the settlements. She called on Palestinian workers, particularly women, to fill out a form her ministry had prepared for this purpose.

She added that the number of women workers in Jewish settlements is small compared to the number of men. Al-Masri said the Ministry of Social Affairs would coordinate with the Palestinian private sector and the national institutions to absorb the workers.

The PA has established a national empowerment fund to help create jobs for the remainder of the 25,000 Palestinians, but that remains a long-term goal. For now, many Palestinian workers have no choice but to earn a living however they can.

The PA launched its "From-house-to-house" campaign to convince Palestinians to boycott 500 different kinds of products made in settlements. The campaign against settlement products is backed by a law recently signed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, prescribing prison sentences and fines for violators.

The PA hopes that the boycott will encourage the international community to adopt a stronger stance against settlements while helping end the Palestinian economy's dependence on Israel. In addition to forcing Israeli factories in West Bank settlements to shut down or relocate inside Israel, the campaign is deterring other Israeli businesses from moving to West Bank industrial zones, which were originally set up to be closer to Palestinian laborers, many of whom are denied permits to work inside Israel.

Palestinian inspectors from the National Economy Ministry have raided supermarkets in the West Bank to enforce the law that prohibits the sale of products manufactured in the Jewish settlements.

Not to be deterred, some 100 Israeli occupiers set up a new outpost near Ramallah on Sunday. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said that the occupiers arrived at the site of the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, to the north of Ramallah, early in the morning and set up the outpost.

Israeli Channel 7 television said the new outpost is called Mezudat Ha'ari (the Lion's Memorial). It was set up as a protest against limitations on Jewish building in Jerusalem, the building of Rawabi and an Israeli government decision that cedes land belonging to Ateret and Neve Tsuf settlements to the Palestinian Authority to pave an access road to Rawabi, Channel 7 added.