This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The European Union has issued new guidelines for the labelling of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after years of deliberation and in the teeth of fierce Israeli opposition.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, made a personal appeal to a number of key European figures in the runup to the decision, in which he said the plan was discriminatory, indicative of double standards, and would embolden those who seek to “eliminate” Israel.

Speaking in Washington DC after the guidelines were issued, he said the EU should be ashamed, and accused the bloc of punishing “the side that is being attacked by terrorism”.

The measures will primarily cover fruit and vegetables and should affect less than 1% of all trade from Israel to the EU, which is worth about €30bn. EU officials said existing measures for produce brought into Britain have had no negative economic effect.

Israel says EU is 'emboldening its enemies' with labelling plans Read more

On some products, like fruit and vegetables, the labelling referring to settlements will be mandatory, while on others it will be voluntary.



Israel sees the move as a political stigma that rewards Palestinian violence and will push consumers away. It immediately summoned the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, in protest.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the EU has chosen “for political motives, to take an unusual and discriminatory step” at a time when Israel is facing a wave of terror.

In a statement, the ministry said it was “surprised and even angered by the fact that the EU chooses to implement a double standard against Israel, while ignoring 200 territorial disputes taking place today around the world, including within [the EU] or right on [Israel’s] doorstep”. The EU’s claim that the decision was a “technical step” was baseless and cynical, the statement added.

Senior European officials insist that European consumers are entitled to know the source of goods previously labelled as Israeli. Israeli politicians – including Netanyahu – have made comparisons between labelling and the Nazi era, with some suggesting the move is immoral and antisemitic.

The proposal was also denounced by the Israeli energy minister, Yuval Steinitz, a close ally of Netanyahu, as “disguised antisemitism”.

However, a petition signed by more than 500 prominent Israeli figures, including former ambassadors, Israeli prize winners, and former MPs, welcomed the measures.

Describing the guidelines as an important step that could help promote a peace agreement, the petition said: “This kind of distinction can also serve to reduce the current levels of tension, fear and despair, among both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Despite insisting in public that the new guidelines provide clarity to consumers, European diplomats have privately made it clear the move is designed to put pressure on Israel over its continued settlement building in the occupied territories and the absence of a peace dialogue; a sharp rise in violence between Israelis and Palestinians has claimed 90 lives in the last month.

Announcing the new guidelines, a European commission official said it had “adopted this morning the Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967”.

Although the new guidelines are expected to have little real economic impact, they do carry a political significance for Israel, not least because of the widespread agreement among European governments over their implementation.

The decision to push ahead with issuing the guidelines also marks the second major defeat in a year for Netanyahu on an international stage, following his defeat over the Iran nuclear accord, amid mounting evidence of Israel’s growing international isolation.

On Tuesday, a letter leaked to the Guardian showed that Netanyahu had written or spoken to a number of senior European figures, including European parliament president Martin Schulz, asking for their help to block the move.

In a letter to Schulz, the Israeli prime minister said the move was politicised, adding that it could “lead to an actual boycott [of Israel], emboldening those who are not interested in Israeli-Palestinian peace but eliminating Israel altogether”.

Since 2003, the EU has placed a numerical code on Israeli imports to allow customs to distinguish between products made within the Green Line and those that are produced beyond it. The UK adopted labelling guidelines for settlement products three years ago.

Now, however, consumers across the continent will be able to distinguish settlement products.

Two years ago, the EU delayed the publication of the guidelines at the request of the US, which was attempting to mediate a nine-month long peace negotiation process between Israel and the Palestinians. When that failed pressure mounted once again for labelling.

“There is no doubt that the main purpose of the measure is to exert political pressure upon Israel,” said the Israeli foreign ministry. “As the preparation of the labelling guidelines has been pending for more than three years, the recent steps beg the question why the EU decided that it should be done now.”

Israel’s ambassador to the EU warned on Tuesday that there would be “implications” to the decision.

“Frankly this is extremely disappointing, it’s unacceptable, and it’s not going to be taken lightly in Israel – this will have implications,” said the envoy, David Walzer. “We welcome EU contributions to the peace process - what comes tomorrow might force us to reconsider that. This cannot be described as business as usual or diplomatic disagreements,” he said.

“This for us in Israel feels like we have been singled out for quasi-sanctions using economic tools for punishment.”



