E.U. Guidelines on Labeling Products from Israeli Settlements: A Step Forward or Political Hypocrisy?

November 12th, 2015

Awake Goy

Michaela Whitton (AM) : After years of deliberation, the European Union has finally issued new guidelines to ensure products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are labeled to indicate their origin.

The guidance means Israeli producers must explicitly label farm goods and cosmetics that come from settlements when they are sold anywhere in the European Union. The new labeling covers products made in Israeli civilian areas situated in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.

There are currently 600,000 Israeli settlers populating settlements deemed illegal under international law in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied land.

International trade in goods such as fruits, vegetables, and cosmetics produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem not only boosts settlement economies, but helps the settlements become financially viable, permanent entities.

The long-awaited guidelines will see geographical information added to goods such as “product from the Golan Heights (Israeli settlement)” or “product from the West Bank (Israeli settlement)” — informing consumers of the true origin of the product.

The European Union’s announcement was met with criticism from Israeli officials, as well as outrage on Twitter, despite the Interpretative Notice also stating “the EU does not support any form of boycott or sanctions against Israel.”

A year ago this week, I was a member of a group of Europeans chosen to lobby E.U. officials in Brussels by delivering first-hand accounts of what we witnessed as human rights observers in occupied Palestine.

Our attempts to alert E.U. officials to the urgency of the situation and take more effective action against illegal settlement expansion, Palestinian home demolitions, and forced displacement consisted of presentations, photographs, and documentation of Israel’s violations of international law.

We met with around 60 officials from a spectrum of political affiliations, including permanent representatives to the E.U. from Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Ireland, Finland, and Sweden. We shared reports from on the ground with political advisors to the E.U. Parliament, civil servants working in the External Action Service, the office of the High Representative, the E.U. Commission on Development and Cooperation, and Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection.

Almost as shocking as the sparse knowledge some of the MEPs had on the situation was how little was being done about it at the E.U. level. Our presentations of recent information from the ground attempted to show Israel’s clear violations of E.U. “red lines” as laid down in the Foreign Affairs Council Conclusion of 22 July.

Along with its habitual “condemning,” “strongly condemning,” and “being concerned,” the Foreign Affairs Council had previously called on Israel to halt creeping settlement expansions. The E.U. also demanded an end to settler violence, Palestinian home demolitions (including of E.U.-funded projects), evictions, and forced transfers, insisting Israel address “increasing tensions and challenges to the status quo on the Temple Mount/Haram alSharif.”

We provided photographic evidence of all the above.

The dawning and sobering reality while navigating five days in the corridors of power was not just how little some MEPs knew about settlement expansion, but how far the European Union was from implementing meaningful sanctions on Israel.

Meanwhile, some MEPs, many European organizations, NGOs, unions, and international solidarity movements were calling for the complete suspension of the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, which sees the E.U. cooperate with Israel to an extent well beyond that of other non-European nations.

Other activists continue to demand, at the very least, a complete ban on settlement goods:

“If the EU is serious in implementing its own policy of non-recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the occupied Arab territories of 1967, why doesn’t it implement a ban on the import of products of Israeli companies that illegally operate in the occupied territories? Merely labeling, rather than banning, illegal settlement goods indicates political hypocrisy par excellence,” said Dr. Rafeef Zadiah, a member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).

During a week in the fancy offices of Brussels, it didn’t take a genius to realise that E.U. officials were a million miles away from banning settlement goods; the head scratching and debate on labeling guidelines alone has taken them three years.

MEP Alyn Smith welcomed the E.U. guidelines on Wednesday, calling them a step forward but cautioning they must be improved and extended:

“I welcome the EU guidelines on settlement produce as a step forward to ensure the E.U. enforces international law and does not fall complicit to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The E.U. was quick enough to act when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, yet the fact we welcome these guidelines today on labeling of illegal produce shows just how slow the E.U.’s actions have been when it comes to Israel,” he said.

Michaela Whitton, The AntiMedia