By Josh Ruebner, contributor
Last month, the European Union published guidelines stipulating that products made in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem cannot be labeled “Made in Israel.” Instead, the labeling must clearly indicate that they were produced in an Israeli settlement.
Although the guidelines do not ban the importation of Israeli settlement goods and the EU explicitly stated that it “does not support any form of boycott or sanctions against Israel,” dozens of members of Congress have castigated the EU’s decision and inaccurately portrayed it as a victory for the Palestinian civil society-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
On Nov. 9, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) sent a bipartisan lettersigned by 36 senators to Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, slamming the impending guidelines as a “de-facto boycott of Israel” which “would prejudge the outcome of future negotiations.”
On Nov. 10, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and 35 other colleagues sent a sterner letter to Mogherini, claiming the EU’s guidelines would “promote restrictive and illegal trade measures against Israel.”
And on Nov. 12, Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), the initiators of a successful effort earlier this year to make opposition to BDS a principal trade negotiating objective of the United States, urged the U.S. Trade Representative to “express opposition” to the EU guidelines.
In their exuberance to defend Israel’s illegal settlements, however, these members of Congress conveniently overlooked the fact that the United States adopted similar labeling requirements — more than 20 years ago.
Read more in The Hill.