It was met with applause from advocates who do not support settlements they consider illegal.
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The publication of the guidelines has been held back for years by Israeli and American pressure, said the Wall Street Journal, but had been agreed upon since 2012.
“Security and stability in the region won’t be achieved unless the Israeli occupation is ended on the lands and holy sites and the Palestinian state is established with east Jerusalem as its capital, ” he maintained. “It’s wrong”, the Prime Minister said.
“After studying the issue deeply we have concluded that there are no comparable guidelines for any other territorial dispute or what are perceived as occupations anywhere else in the world”, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said in reaction to the new EU labeling regime. According to The Washington Post, a senior official said the measure is “a significant move toward a total boycott of Israeli settlements, which are built illegally on occupied Palestinian land”. “That said, if Israel continues to expand settlement activity, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to – if a few in the global community pursue steps to limit commercial relations with the settlements, and this underscores the urgent need for Israel to change its policies with regard to settlements”, Toner added.
“This is a welcome sign that European governments are reacting to public opinion, civil society campaigning and Israeli intransigence and are becoming more willing to take a few basic action against Israeli violations of worldwide law”, Mahmoud Nawajaa, general coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said in an e-mailed statement. However the move exacerbated already simmering tensions between Israel & Europe as Israeli politicians condemned it as an echo of the Holocaust-era branding of European Jews & their storefronts with yellow stars.
A second Commission source said the guidelines were requested by European Union governments who sought clarity on existing European Union labelling rules and that the five page document of a few 12 paragraphs did not constitute new legislation.
“Any deal, or any arrangement, unilateral or negotiated, must have Israel maintain the ability to defend itself by itself against threat, including from territories that are ceded”, Netanyahu said.
The guidelines apply to cosmetics, wine, honey, eggs, poultry, all fresh fruits and vegetables, and other organic products.
Israel has argued the food labeling could carry a political stigma that could reduce sales to European consumers. Instead, the goods would have to be labeled something along the lines of “product from the Golan Heights (Israeli settlement)” or “product from West Bank (Israeli settlement)”, the commission said.
For other products, a label indicating their origin is voluntary, but it may not be “misleading”.
Israel summoned the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faberge-Andersen, for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
Israel condemns that “the European Union has chosen, for political reasons, to take such an exceptional and discriminatory step, inspired by the boycott movement, particularly at this time, when Israel is confronting a wave of terrorism targeting any and all of its citizens”, the statement reads.
Correct and proper The Palestine Liberation Organisation welcomed the guidelines, saying they would require the “correct and proper” indication of products’ origins. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Democratic Sen.
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While Asia this year overtook the United States as Israel’s second-largest market, excluding diamonds, Cohen said Europe would remain a natural market for Israeli products.
