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EU sets guideline on settlement products despite Israeli ire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went a step further and said that the economic bloc “should be ashamed” of the decision and again likened the move to the Nazi era, when Jews were labeled. “It’s strong enough to weather this, but it’s the Palestinian workers in Israeli enterprises in Judea and Samaria that will be hurt”, he added.

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The Foreign Ministry added, that “Product labeling strengthens the radical elements advocating a boycott against Israel and denying Israel’s right to exist”. “Our concern is that once you put a label on Judea and Samaria [the biblical names for the West Bank] you put a label on Israel”, he told the Times of Israel website, according to the Independent.

Wednesday’s guidelines say that Israeli-owned businesses or farms located in settlements – including East Jerusalem, which Israel claims as part of its undivided capital – are not just prohibited from labeling certain goods as “Product of Israel” but are required to specifically label that certain products were produced on settlements.

A major survey on British Jews’ feelings about Israel has shown “feelings of despair” are widespread and that most are torn between loyalty to the country and repulsion at a few of its policies.

“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.

Earlier in the day Faaborg-Andersen held a long and frank conversation at the office of Media Central, a media services NGO in Jerusalem, in which he insisted: “This is not a boycott”.

“How can it be a boycott, if the products can come on to the market?” he asked. Labeling products that are produced in the Palestinian territories, explained the European Union, does not bar consumers from buying them – it simply allows consumers to make educated decisions in their purchases.

The producer, exporter and importer are responsible for complying with the regulations, but it is up to member countries to ensure the rules are followed, officials in Brussels said. This could have the effect of “weakening the EU’s standing as a credible player in the region”, he said.

Since the labeling issue first emerged in 2012, the European Union has attempted to downplay it as a technical and not a political matter.

“This is no way changes our stance with respect to the Middle East peace process”, a spokesman for the European Commission told the Times.

On Wednesday Palestine President Mahmud Abbas called on Latin American governments to follow the European Union in labelling products made in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

According to Nahshon, the European Union measure is “the epitome of hypocrisy”.

On a few products, like fruit and vegetables, the labeling referring to settlements will be mandatory, while on others it will be voluntary. Stand-ins, including “Product of West Bank” or “Product of Golan Heights” will not suffice if it is not made clear the products were made on settlements. He charged that the policy would “encourage Europeans to boycott Israeli products, and to stoke European animosity toward Israel – which is already at disturbingly high levels”.

The commission noted that this designation “shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine”.

To illustrate the absurdity of this policy, produce grown in the hills outside Jerusalem will be specially labeled, but not produce grown in Gaza, which is controlled by a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization.

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The EU’s position is that the lands Israel has occupied since 1967 are not part of the internationally recognised borders of Israel.

Under new guidelines goods made in the Israeli occupied territories and sold in the EU must be labelled to state exactly where they were produced