BICOM

Israeli leaders yesterday responded to the EU’s adoption of guidelines that require food and cosmetics from Israeli settlements to be labelled.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the EU announcement saying it was “hypocritical and applies double standards, targeting Israel when there are over 200 other conflicts around the world. The EU has decided to label only Israel, and we are not prepared to accept the fact that Europe is labelling the side that is being attacked by terrorism.”

Lars Faaborg-Andersen, EU Envoy to Israel, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in order for Israel to object to the guidelines, and Israel temporarily suspended strategic dialogue with the EU in protest.

The move was condemned by Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) who called the decision “dangerous and detrimental.” Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party, wrote to European ambassadors to protest the decision.

The EU insists that the labelling announcement is technical in nature and not political. In an explanatory note released alongside the labelling guidelines, the EU stressed that this was not meant to be a first step towards a boycott or ban on goods from settlements or Israel.

Nevertheless, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat called the guidelines a “significant move toward a total boycott of Israeli settlements” and the PLO Negotiation Department tweeted that EU labelling of settlement products was a step in the right direction but insufficient arguing that “products of a war crime must be banned, not just labelled.”

The move was also praised by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Spokesman Mahmoud Nawajaa said “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 some basic action.”

The labelling guidelines are not a new law or regulation but are officially an interpretation of existing law. According to the guidelines, products produced in the West Bank and Golan heights cannot be marked as ‘produce of Israel’, and products from Israeli settlements need to be specifically labelled as such.

The EU guidelines are very similar to those already in force in the UK since 2009.