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Ad by Friends of Al-Aqsa calling for boycott of products from “Israel, West Bank (Settlements) & Jordan Valley.” (FirstOneThrough)
The EU is due to publish guidelines related to labeling Israeli products from areas beyond the Green Line. The Israeli government and Opposition are united against such a discriminatory policy.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog are on opposite sides of the political spectrum with regard to internal Israeli policy. They agree, however, on the maliciousness of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which specifically targets the Jewish state.
The European Union (EU) is due to publish specific guidelines related to labeling Israeli products from areas liberated during the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel fought against the surrounding Arab countries seeking to eliminate the Jewish state. Such action encourages BDS, which many consider to be a modern form of anti-Semitism.
‘Labeling Products is a Violent Act’
“I harshly oppose this harmful and superfluous move. It serves only one purpose, the continuation of hate and conflict in the area. Labeling products is a violent act of extremists who want to worsen the situation here even more, and the EU is falling in the trap that they have set,” Herzog said, following a meeting in which he discussed the matter with British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey.
A Palestinian woman works at the Israeli SodaStream factory. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Herzog, chairman of the Zionist Union party, said that such labeling would be a “prize that Europe is bestowing for terror.”
“This is a measure that serves only one purpose – continuing the hate and regional conflict. Marking these products is an act of violence by extremists who want to further inflame the situation and the EU is falling into their trap,” he asserted.
Labeling would also hurt Palestinian Arabs, he noted. “It will be a blow to tens of thousands of Palestinians employed in factories in Judea and Samaria under proper conditions who bring in an income for their families.”
Hotovely said that the EU, by considering such legislation, is “discriminating against the Jewish state.”
Europeans are ‘Singling Out Israel’
Speaking at the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria, where Israelis and Palestinians work together under equally good employment conditions, Hotovely said the boycott delegitimizes the State of Israel. “When you boycott Judea and Samaria, you eventually boycott Tel Aviv,” she stated. “There are over 200 territorial disputes in the world, but the European Union is singling out Israel. This is discrimination. This is a boycott.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Labeling the products would cause Palestinian employees – not Israelis – to suffer the most, she said, adding that it prevents coexistence. “You’re not harming Israel’s economy when you do labeling. What you harm is over 10,000 Palestinian families who are going to lose their jobs.”
Hotovely also took the opportunity to censure the EU for its silence regarding the ongoing Palestinian terror against innocent Israelis, pointing out that the attacks occur not only over the Green Line, but in central Israel.
By: Terri Nir, United with Israel
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