European Union Issues Guidelines for Labeling Settlement Products. Critics Deem Them Discriminatory.
In a long-expected move, the European Union issued guidelines on Wednesday for labeling products manufactured in Israeli-occupied territories. The rules, in the works for over a year, are to be applied at the member states’ discretion, and are mandatory for some products but not others. The explanatory EU notice states: “The European Union, in line with international law, does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
While the EU has repeatedly and emphatically disavowed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel and distinguished its labeling from it, many critics see this latest action as a slippery slope towards full-scale boycotts of the Jewish state. As such, it was condemned across the spectrum by the Israeli government, U.S. lawmakers, and American Jewish groups like the American Jewish Committee.