Legislation seeks to counter new EU guidelines that ban goods manufactured beyond 1967 lines from reading ‘Made in Israel’
The Knesset Committee for Legislation will next week discuss a bill that would label all imports to Israel from countries that themselves label Israeli products made in the West Bank.
Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli proposed the legislation in response to new European Union legislation, which requires imports made in Israeli settlements to have special labels and not be marked as having been made in Israel.
According to the proposed legislation, the required label would read: “Please note, this product was manufactured by a country that has chosen to label products from Israel,” Maariv reported.
The proposed legislation also stipulates that failing to mark products would result in a NIS 226,000 ($58,000) fine.
Moalem-Refaeli said the initiative was the “result of actions taken by pro-Palestinian groups and the strengthening BDS movement, there is a need to deter other countries from labeling Israeli products.”
“Economic interests are the number one concern in diplomatic relations between countries, stronger than any false ideology,” she said. “These countries need to know that in response, Israeli consumers may choose to boycott their products.”
According to EU guidelines published in November by the European Commission, goods manufactured over the pre-1967 lines may not state that they were “Made in Israel.” Rather, they should be labeled with wording such as “Product from the West Bank (Israeli settlements),” the Commission suggested.
The decision has come under criticism in Israel and elsewhere, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming it as discriminatory. Moalem-Refaeli’s Orthodox-nationalist Jewish Home party, which has wide support among West Bank settlers, is a key part of Netanyahu’s narrow coalition.
As reported by The Times of Israel