EU plan to label products made in illegal settlements infuriates Israel Israel’s Foreign Minister pledged to stop the rule from coming into effect

An EU plan to label products made in illegal settlements has infuriated Israel.

The EU’s top court has ruled that goods from Israeli settlements must be labelled as produced in occupied territory.

The decision was hailed by Palestinians even as it was condemned by Israel, which said it would try to persuade countries to ignore it.

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Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katzs hit out at the ruling which it said “serves as a tool in the political campaign against Israel”. He pledged to stop the rule from coming into effect.

West Bank winery

“The ruling’s entire objective is to single out and apply a double standard against Israel. There are over 200 ongoing territorial disputes across the world, yet the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has not rendered a single ruling related to the labelling of products originating from these territories,” he said.

But Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, welcomed the ruling and called on all EU countries to “implement what is a legal and political obligation”.

The Luxembourg-based ECJ said labels must not imply that goods produced in occupied territory came from Israel itself.

Labels must “prevent consumers from being misled as to the fact that the State of Israel is present in the territories concerned as an occupying power and not as a sovereign entity”, the court said.

The case focused on a winery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but the court referred to all territory Israel captured in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both of which Israel has annexed, as well as the West Bank.

‘Ethical considerations’

As well as wine, Israeli farmers grow and package herbs, fruits and vegetables in the territories, many of which have been exported to the EU and labelled as “Product of Israel”.

Palestinians want to establish a state on territory occupied by Israel since 1967. They argue that settlements on occupied land are an unlawful violation of the Geneva conventions and multiple UN resolutions. Israel denies that its settlements break international law.

In its ruling, the EU court said settlements involved the transfer of Israelis outside the state’s territory “in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law”.

As a result, failing to inform EU consumers they were potentially buying goods produced in settlements denies them access to “ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law”, it said.

Additional reporting from Reuters.