Israel Cancels Meetings With EU Over Decision to Label Settlement Goods

Senior Foreign Ministry officials tell EU's ambassador to Israel that cancellations include some strategic dialogues and meetings on human rights and international organizations.

Israel informed the European Union on Wednesday that it had canceled a number of consultations scheduled over the coming weeks between the two sides, officials in Jerusalem said.

Senior officials in the Foreign Ministry told EU ambassador in Israel Lars Faarborg-Andersen, who was summoned to the ministry to be reprimanded, that the decision was Israel's response to the EU's decision Wednesday to adopt guidelines on labeling products made in West Bank settlements, the officials said. The Israeli ambassador to the EU conveyed a similar message to senior EU officials at a meeting in EU headquarters in Brussels.

Senior Foreign Ministry officials Alon Ushpiz and Aviv Shir-On, who met the EU ambassador Wednesday, protested the EU's decision to start labeling products from the settlements and said it was an example for the EU's double standard in dealing with Israel.

The officials told Faarborg-Andersen that Israel would suspend some of the strategic dialogues it was conducting with the organization and would cancel a meeting on human rights and a meeting on international organizations that were slated to take place in the next few weeks.

Foreign Ministry officials also said that at this stage no further date would be set for another meeting with the EU dealing mainly with advancing Projects in C area of the West Bank. The first and only meeting on this issue took place in September and no further meeting had been scheduled.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.685539

Oh dear, now we'll know if things are made by settlers or Palestinians and act accordingly.

Great, I already know where my olive oil soap and olive oil come from - Nablus and not the settlement.

What's wrong with labeling the origin of the products?

Standard procedure with the WTO I would have thought. Surely they have nothing to hide?

So you will be happy to label all Halal and kosher products then, as what is wrong with that?

The European Commission formally approved labeling “settlement products” from the West Bank. I was impressed with this Reuters snippet:

Two elements of the EU decision have particularly enraged Israeli officials. They see the measures as an effective boycott of Israel and say other cases of long-standing occupation, such as Morocco’s seizure of Western Sahara, are not treated in the same way.
 
The EU dismisses the suggestion of a boycott, pointing out that it is not telling consumers what not to buy. Those who do not want to buy Israeli settlement goods probably already avoid them, and those that support the settlements may now more actively seek out settlement produce.
 
The question of a double-standard is harder for the EU, which has struggled with the question of Western Sahara in the past. When it comes to goods from northern Cyprus, seized by Turkey in 1974, the EU calls it “an internal issue.”

Why the double standards?

Because the EU will not dare to upset the Gulf states that would be up in arms if the same was imposed on Northern Cyprus and Morocco

Its time the west did away with its need of gulf oil and looked to the US or alternative fuel sources.

Didge wrote:So you will be happy to label all Halal and kosher products then, as what is wrong with that?

Absolutely. I believe all products should be labelled with their origin or methods of produce. which involves the killing of animals. What's your problem with the EU decision? You obviously support the Zionists in their quest in the West Bank so this gives you the opportunity to seek out these products that Israel produces with products from the West Bank and support it.

Win win situation isn't it?

Irn Bru wrote:

Didge wrote:So you will be happy to label all Halal and kosher products then, as what is wrong with that?

Absolutely. I believe all products should be labelled with their origin or methods of produce. which involves the killing of animals. What's your problem with the EU decision? You obviously support the Zionists in their quest in the West Bank so this gives you the opportunity to seek out these products that Israel produces with products from the West Bank and support it.

Win win situation isn't it?

There is nothing wrong with Zionism, other than it is religious bullshit, it does not call for people to murder others. I do not agree with the settlements either as stated many times, but the territory is in dispute as the area is not offcially a world wide recognised state.
You will agree that it is complete double standards that the same is not applied to Morocco or Northern Cyprus and that clearly the Gulf states are having influence on balance being done when it comes to claims of occupation of territories?

Are there occupying armies in Morocco and Northern Cyprus who are there without consent of the people that live there?

Come on Didge you can help the Israeli's by buying products they make from produce from the West Bank. This helps you to do that.

Like I say it's a win win.

Irn Bru wrote:Are there occupying armies in Morocco and Northern Cyprus who are there without consent of the people that live there?

Come on Didge you can help the Israeli's by buying products they make from produce from the West Bank. This helps you to do that.

Like I say it's a win win.

Is there amred forces in Gaza?
No
There is in both the western Sahara and Cyprus
Why do you think the British army still has a base in Cyprus?
In fact the worst point of all this is that this is actually going to effect the palestinians more than it does the settlerers as they employ many Palestinians, but I guess you never knew that. Thus if their profits are effected people will lose jobs, but the left never think about anyone but their own agendas.

I see you cannot even call for balance

Quelle surprise

Didge wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:Are there occupying armies in Morocco and Northern Cyprus who are there without consent of the people that live there?

Come on Didge you can help the Israeli's by buying products they make from produce from the West Bank. This helps you to do that.

Like I say it's a win win.

Is there amred forces in Gaza?
No
There is in both the western Sahara and Cyprus
Why do you think the British army still has a base in Cyprus?
In fact the worst point of all this is that this is actually going to effect the palestinians more than it does the settlerers as they imply many palestinians, but I guess you never knew that. Thus if their profits are effected people will lose jobs, but the left never think about anyone but their own agendas.

I see you cannot even call for balance

Quelle surprise

Of course there are armed forces in Cyprus and Morocco but they are not discriminating against the inhabitants who live there. And I'm sure I read a report the other day that Israeli troops were in Gaza and they can go there antime they wish and control what goes in and out.

I am showing balance in pointing out that there are advantages for both sides as it comes down to free choice.

Britain still has a base in Cyprus because Greece or Turkeyn really has any objection to it.

Irn Bru wrote:

Didge wrote:

Is there amred forces in Gaza?
No
There is in both the western Sahara and Cyprus
Why do you think the British army still has a base in Cyprus?
In fact the worst point of all this is that this is actually going to effect the palestinians more than it does the settlerers as they imply many palestinians, but I guess you never knew that. Thus if their profits are effected people will lose jobs, but the left never think about anyone but their own agendas.

I see you cannot even call for balance

Quelle surprise

Of course there are armed forces in Cyprus and Morocco but they are not discriminating against the inhabitants who live there. And I'm sure I read a report the other day that Israeli troops were in Gaza and they can go there antime they wish and control what goes in and out.

I am showing balance in pointing out that there are advantages for both sides as it comes down to free choice.

Britain still has a base in Cyprus because Greece or Turkeyn really has any objection to it.

Are you having a laugh?
Not discrminating?

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/24/morocco/western-sahara-rights-group-legalized

[url=http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/testimony new.pdf]http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/testimony%20new.pdf[/url]


Oh my that says it all really and you again shows your completely biased

Again israel has check points, the only real claim to discrimination, which would not be needed if again the Palestinians wanted peace, of which as seen they do not as they continue attacks. You have peace, no more check points


Also to add further to my point:








The European Union’s recent decision to label products manufactured in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank is not merely a technical move as EU officials have claimed. Their intention seems clear enough: to draw European and global consumer attention to these products as a first step in boycotting them. European governments mistakenly believe that labeling and boycotting Israeli products manufactured in Jewish settlements will cause economic pain to Israeli businesses over the green line and cause them to fail. Politically, many European leaders and their political class believe that boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) will logically bring Israel to leave the settlements altogether and return to the 1949 armistice lines (1967 “borders”) thereby paving the way for a Palestinian state along these lines.

Their logic is misguided.

In fact, the newly approved EU labeling policy and Europe’s well known sympathy for BDS have already yielded unintended consequences. Labeling and boycotts have had minimal effects on Jewish settlement economics; instead, BDS harms the Palestinian economy. It has already resulted in the termination of hundreds of Palestinian employees of the public company Soda Stream that operates along with several hundred other companies in the Mishor Adumim Industrial Zone some 15 minutes outside of Jerusalem. Some 4,000 Palestinians are employed there. BDS provocations against Soda Stream brought corporate management to move the company’s factory from Mishor Adumim to the Negev. The BDS cost: Close to 1,000 Palestinian workers, who had earned some 5,000 to 6,000 shekels monthly plus all Israeli worker benefits that are protected by Israeli law, lost well-paying employment. Those newly unemployed Palestinian workers will now need to seek employment in Palestinian cities of the West Bank at a monthly salary of some 1,500 shekels without social or medical benefits.

Soda Stream CEO Daniel Birnbaum has lashed out at BDS antics, telling the British Guardian recently, “It’s propaganda.

It’s politics. It’s hate. It’s anti-Semitism.” Birnbaum also noted that Soda Stream was only marginally economically affected by BDS. Therein lies Europe’s miscalculation. Their labeling and ongoing BDS pressure has had a negligible outcome on Israeli settlement businesses. However, it has had a deleterious effect on tens of thousands of Palestinian workers and their families who depend on Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in the West Bank’s Area C industrial zones.

Palestinian affairs analyst Pinchas Inbari reminds us that the possible snowball effect of BDS actions and Palestinian workers and managers losing their jobs can incite destabilization of the Palestinian Authority. The PA has led vociferous public BDS campaigns, particularly of late. One remembers former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad’s calls to burn settlement products.

Growing Palestinian economic frustrations can easily trigger a “Palestinian Spring” as economic grievances triggered the Islamic revolutions in Libya, Egypt Syria, Tunisia and Sudan.

Soda Stream may well be only the beginning of a tsunami of Palestinian unemployment. It characterizes a larger BDS threat. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are employed in hundreds of factories in some eight industrial zones in Area C of the West Bank that falls under Israeli control according to the Oslo interim accords.

Saad Shaher, the head of the Palestinian professional association in the West Bank, publicly called on PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas in an emotional plea on Palestinian television to avoid causing the closing the West Bank industrial zones before a suitable alternative is found.

Shaher’s calls apparently fell on deaf ears. What is likely to happen is that if the current BDS campaign rolls forward and the EU product labeling generates BDS momentum as can be expected, tens of thousands of Palestinian workers and their families will lose their jobs and ensuing Palestinian anger and frustration will be directed at the PA in Ramallah.

European leaders would be well advised to consider that their enthusiasm for settlement product labeling and support for BDS is not seriously affecting Israeli settlements.

Rather its hurting Palestinians working in the West Bank industrial zones. Ironically, Palestinian-backed boycott activism against Israel threatens to destabilize the Palestinian Authority.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-World-From-Here-Europes-BDS-labeling-hurts-Palestinians-not-Israelis-432607

You need to read what I said more carefully Didge otherwise you will just keep making the same old mistakes.

Of course there are armed forces in Cyprus and Morocco but they are not discriminating against the inhabitants who live there

Well I’ve been to Morocco albeit some time ago but I don’t think they (the Armed Forces) have since introduced check-points where the armed forces of Morocco themselves discriminate against certain inhabitants that live there in respect of the need for travel permits etc. But if you have any examples of this then please flag them up.

Face it Didge, it’s a win win situation and freedom of choice for everyone and you can’t argue with that.

As for the rest of your post. The Israeli’s should free up the draconian controls that they impose on the West Bank in relation to trade and movement and allow the Palestinians to build their economy free from the restrictions that are applied throughout the whole of the West Bank. In fact, they should just leave.

I've been to Cyprus as well and I know full well why Britain still has a base there. If you really don't know then just ask and I'll take you through it all.

lol I just proved there is a huge problem with discrimination and human rights abuses in the western Sahara and you then go off a claim from yourself. So you are again now discounting any view to discrimination within the Western Sahara, based off your subjective measure classifying check points as discrmination. All of which would not even be needed if for the fact that Israel is constantly attacked. All because again that a substancial amount of Palestinians view all Israel as occupied. so going to Morocco and never actually venturing into the western Sahara, is completely moot. Let alone how you now even worse diminish the discrmination and human rights absues based off no sound reasoning.

So here is more for you

http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/testimony%20new.pdf

I am not conerened over the labelling, as everything should have from any given nation. What I do object to is the poor double standards applied. Where this is clearly the influence more so from the Gulf states with their ability to manipulate over our dependence of fuel. I mean sweriously, have you not grasped where the actual pressufre has been demanded from?

If you been to Cyprus or even met Greek Cypriots or Tuerkish Cypriots, you would know that is a high level of hate from the Greek Cypriots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Northern_Cyprus


I have top say, when you are next on holiday in both places irn, may I suggest that next time you actually open your eyes.

Are the armed forces in Morooco setting up check-points to discriminate against certain sections of Moroccan society? Flag them up.

But now you are NOT concerned about the labelling Oh well

And I wasn't there on holiday.

lol so in other words you have no view or are being hypocritical by not speaking out to the double standards being applied by the EU.

Something the left struggle with, actually understanding balance and actual equality lol

What double standards?