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Israel Suspends Contacts with EU in Labeling Dispute

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Bottles of wine produced in a Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria are on display at a supermarket in Jerusalem

Israel has suspended diplomatic contacts with the European Union related to the troubled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and to protest an EU move to separately label products manufactured in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the move Sunday, saying contacts with EU bodies and their representatives will remain suspended until his government completes a reevaluation process.

Netanyahu did not disclose details of the diplomatic freeze and did not say which institutions will be affected.

Sunday’s announcement caps weeks of rising diplomatic tensions with the EU, the 28-country trade bloc that has sought to pressure Israel to ease settlement expansion in the Judea and Samaria region.

The JPost reported that according to a Foreign Ministry statement, Israel will continue to have diplomatic contacts with individual EU countries – such as Germany, Britain and France – but not with EU institutions.

As for the EU’s part, it has been reported that the international body had no immediate response to the declaration. They said that they are first trying to understand the implications of Israel’s decision.

European governments contend that lands liberated by Israel in the 1967 war – Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights – are not part of Israel’s internationally recognized borders.  Palestinian leaders consider the settlements illegal and have repeatedly cited settlement expansion as a primary obstacle to any lasting regional peace.

Earlier this month, the EU published new guidelines for labeling settlement products – a move Israel promptly blasted as discriminatory and politically motivated.

The guidelines, drawn up over several years, require Israeli producers to clearly label farm goods and other products sold in EU countries, as part of an apparent push to facilitate consumer boycotts by Europeans opposed to Israeli settlements.

The EU has consistently downplayed the impact of the guidelines, saying it was only a “technical matter.” An EU commission spokesman said earlier this month the labeling would simply “ensure the uniform application of the rules concerning the indication of origin of Israeli settlement products. The aim is to ensure effective implementation of existing EU legislation,” according to a Jerusalem Post report.

At the recent Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu blasted the EU’s decision, calling it “absolutely absurd and morally abhorrent, because on the soil of Europe within living memory, Jewish products were labeled, Jewish stores were labeled.”

Walter Metuth

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