Report: EU 'weeks' away from finalizing required labeling of 'settlement products'
The European Union is preparing new guidelines that would require Israel to label products made in West Bank settlements if they are exported to the 28-nation bloc, EU officials said Tuesday.
The move is the latest sign of international discontent with Israeli construction of settlements on occupied lands claimed by the Palestinians. And while the work is expected to take weeks, it comes as a grassroots movement promoting boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel is gaining steam.
Israeli officials reject the European labeling plan, saying it would amount to a type of boycott and would discourage the Palestinians from pursuing peace talks.
The Times of Israel reported last week that the issue of labeling settlement goods could snowball into a major headache thanks to the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement gathers steam against Israel for its policies toward the Palestinians.
According to one of the EU officials, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, told European foreign ministers last month that work is “underway” and that a set of guidelines will be “finalized in the near future.” The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal EU affairs.
There have been other recent actions that have underscored the controversial settlement issue.
In recent weeks, Israel fended off a Palestinian attempt to expel Israel from FIFA, the global soccer federation. Britain’s national student union endorsed the anti-Israel boycott movement, and the chief executive of French telecom giant Orange said he would like to sever business ties with Israel. The CEO, Stephane Richard, has since tried to backtrack from his comments, but the uproar over the so-called BDS movement has not subsided.
An EU labeling effort would deliver an especially tough diplomatic blow, since Western European countries are among Israel’s closest allies. Europe is Israel’s largest trade market, though products from settlements, including wines, cosmetics and agricultural products, make up a tiny percentage of exports.Europe's actions are not bringing 'peace' any closer. If anything, they're emboldening the 'Palestinians' to dig in their heels and insist on everything.
The Palestinians reject peace talks with Israel and then try to get boycotts imposed on Israel for there being no peace talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Czech Republic Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek during a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, calling it a "perfect trap."
Netanyahu explained, "We want two states for two peoples: a Jewish state, a Jewish nation state -- Israel, living in peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state," Netanyahu said. "Unfortunately, the Palestinians don't negotiate. They ran away from negotiations. They ran away from [Ehud] Barak; they ran away from [Ariel] Sharon; they ran away from [Ehud] Olmert; they ran away from me. ... What they do is they refuse to negotiate, refuse to deal with the framework of John Kerry, in the White House, run to Hamas, which calls for our destruction, go to the U.N. and try to get sanctions on Israel. They refuse to negotiate and then try to get boycotts on Israel for there not being negotiations which they refuse to enter. Catch-22.
"And Israel is being blamed. There is talk of labeling products on Israel, there's talk of U.N. Security Council resolution demands on Israel. This will push peace further and further back. Because why should the Palestinians negotiate when the U.N. will give them everything without negotiations?
"I think this cycle has to be stopped. I think we have to get back to direct negotiations without preconditions. I think it's important that the international community stop giving the Palestinians a free pass.In the last three weeks, two American states - Illinois and South Carolina - have passed anti-BDS bills. In Illinois it is now illegal for the state to invest its pension funds in companies that boycott Israel, while in South Carolina it is now illegal for state agencies to contract with any business that boycotts others “based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.” The last item on the list—”national origin”—effectively encompasses boycotts of the state of Israel, but is not limited to them.
The European Union is effectively carrying the ball (along with US President Obama) for a 'Palestinian state' and you have to wonder why. The only explanation I can think of is classic anti-Semitism.
Labels: anti-Semitism, Barack Hussein Obama, BDS, Binyamin Netanyahu, European anti-Semitism, European Union, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, settlement product boycott
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:15 PM
4 Comments:
Israel has not yet provided a GIS county clerk title search database. So.... What's happening must be how someone wants it, right? Right?
Israel should start restricting the sale of all medical and scientific technology to the EU. I'm sure all those life saving things have analogs in Mein Kampf or the Koran.
I don't know much about economics or international trade, but I wonder whether Israel could file a complaint withe the World Trade Organization about this racist European policy.
My guess for when Bibi/Israel will FINALLY start to forget this pipe-dream of EU acceptance of Israel as a fellow Western Socialist nation-state?
The 32d of Never-Ever.
Of course, Israel could help the process by taking in millions of Muslim immigrants, institute death-panels for the elderly, have folks retire at 50 years-old, then build up billions in never-to-be-paid-off debt, as Europe is doing now. It's not as if Israel doesn't already have a left-wing brimming over with hatred for Jews, right?
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