EU’s labeling plan infuriates Israel
Move to label Israeli goods strains ties with EU nations.
Europe to mark some products as “made in settlements.”
— In a stinging rebuke to Israel, the European Union insisted Wednesday that some goods produced on land seized in the 1967 war must be labeled “made in settlements,” a mandate that added to Israel’s deep unease over a growing international boycott.
European officials tried to play down the decision, saying the guidelines merely clarified existing rules. But the move exacerbated already simmering tensions between Israel and Europe as Israeli politicians condemned it as an echo of the Holocaust-era branding of European Jews and their storefronts with yellow stars.
The EU is Israel’s top trading partner, although products from the occupied West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem that will require special labels comprise less than 1 percent of Israel’s $13 billion in annual exports to the bloc’s 28 countries. But while the immediate economic impact is expected to be minimal, there is fear that the labeling could be extended to the broader economy by targeting businesses that have operations or affiliates in the contested areas.
“The Israeli pushback is about trying to intimidate Europeans from not going further down this path,” said Daniel Levy, Middle East director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The Israelis want this process to move as slowly as possible, because at a minimum it’s a headache, and at a maximum, ultimately, it could be devastating.”
The EU’s decision to proceed on guidelines came after several of its member states and its own parliament formally or symbolically recognized an independent Palestinian state. Those resolutions reflect mounting frustration in Europe over the stalemated peace process and the growing political pressure on leaders in countries with large Muslim populations sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
A spokesman for the European Commission said Wednesday’s move “in no way changes” the bloc’s stance on the peace process or Israel’s special treatment in European markets, where “Made in Israel” items carry little or no tariffs. But “products coming from the settlements cannot benefit from those preferences,” the spokesman said.
Israel summoned the EU ambassador, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, and informed him that Israel was suspending diplomatic talks scheduled in the coming weeks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a host of other Israeli leaders denounced the move as hypocritical because no such labels were proposed for products from occupied territories elsewhere in the world, and they said it was particularly painful after weeks of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews.