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Comment and Opinion

The Times: This EU labelling is bad for Israelis and Palestinians, by Irwin Stelzer

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The Germans are angry with the Greeks for retiring at the age of 50 and counting on Germans to keep working until they are 65 so as to have enough cash to lend to Greece. The French are angry with the Germans for demanding such harsh and humiliating terms from the Greeks in return for a few billion more euros. The Greeks are angry with the Germans for once again in effect telling them how to levy taxes and to organise their economy. Italy is angry with every other EU country for refusing to relieve it of the flood of refugees fleeing Africa. Britain is angry with the entire EU for denying it the right to control its borders and snatching from it large portions of its sovereignty.

On one thing they all, or almost all, agree: products made in “occupied Palestinian land” must be labelled as such. Some 16 foreign ministers have written to Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, calling for action before year-end. In ordinary times, product labelling is a good idea. But these are not ordinary times. It is less than a year since the manager of Sainsbury’s in Holborn, central London, removed kosher food, wherever made, from its shelves in fear of an attack for carrying it, and because “We support Gaza”. It is only a few months since a jihadist shot and killed four Jews in a Paris deli after identifying them as Jews. Imagine what will happen to any store that carries goods labelled “made in occupied Palestine”.

An EC spokesman says: “The EU considers settlements in occupied territories illegal under international law.” Not a word about protecting consumers from shoddy or unsafe products. No worry about adding to the resources devoted to tracking postcodes to make certain that no goods from the settlements enjoy duty-free status under the EU’s free-trade agreement with Israel.

Read the article in full at The Times.