JUDGE LIMITS SAY IN ‘PRODUCT OF ISRAEL’ WINERY CASE

An appeal over wine labelling that threatened to put Middle East politics on trial in Canada’s courts has been firmly reined in, with a judge rejecting a dozen groups’ bid to weigh in. At issue in the case is whether wines produced by Psagot and Shiloh Winery, located in the occupied West Bank, can be branded as Product of Israel under Canadian law. In his decision this week, Federal Court of Appeal Judge David Stratas turned down would-be interveners, including the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada, Centre for Free Expression, Amnesty International, academics, and the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory. Interveners, he said, need to be useful to the hearing panel, which these would not be.