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European Parliament approves separate labelling of Israeli settlement goods
Israeli leaders sharply criticised a non-binding European Parliament vote yesterday in favour of separately labelling goods produced beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
The resolution, which broadly called on the European Union (EU) to play a greater diplomatic role in the Middle East, specified that all agreements between Israel and the EU “must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967,” including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. It encouraged EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to “take the lead” on “completing the work on EU-wide guidelines on the labelling of Israeli settlement produce.”
The motion, which passed by 525 votes to 70, with 31 abstentions, has no immediate practical impact. However, it is viewed as a significant further step towards the separate labelling of settlement goods. It follows a letter in April signed by 16 of the EU’s 28 foreign ministers, which urged Mogherini to make progress on the issue as “an important step in the full implementation of EU longstanding policy.” The letter was signed by Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond and counterparts from France, Italy and Spain, but not by those from Germany and 11 other countries.
Israeli leaders from both sides of the political divide condemned yesterday’s vote. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “unjust” and said that “It is simply a distortion of justice and of logic and I think that it also hurts peace.” He added that “The root of the conflict is not the [pre-1967] territories, and the root of the conflict is not the settlements.”
The Zionist Union opposition party called the motion “fundamentally unacceptable,” adding that while the party “supports a return to the negotiating table … causing harm to Israeli citizens and its economy is not the way to do it.”
Reflecting Israeli concerns that the separate labelling of settlement goods could be a precursor to a wider movement against Israeli goods, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said “labelling products is a boycott.”