Belgium calls for clear labelling of goods from Israeli settlements

Belgium has advised retailers to label clearly the origin of products made in Israeli settlements that are in occupied Palestinian territories.

The non-binding recommendation has nothing to do with the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, the economics ministry said, noting that Britain and Denmark already had similar labelling guidelines in place.

"It's a non-binding advice to state on labels that products originating from occupied territories come from there," a spokeswoman said. "We don't see this as a sanction against Israel, but EU rules stipulate that consumers have to be informed of the origins of products."

The ministry planned to send a letter to retail federations on Tuesday recommending the use of such labels. Neither Belgium's national retail federation, Comeos, nor the Israeli embassy in Brussels would comment before the letter was issued.

Israel has been critical of any move to label produce from Jewish settlements clearly or distinguish them from goods produced by Palestinians, arguing that the distinction is part of a larger effort to impose a Palestinian state on Israel.

The labels Belgium has in mind would mainly apply to fruit and vegetables grown in the West Bank's Jordan valley, but they could also include products such as sparkling water made by SodaStream and cosmetics by Ahava, both of which have production facilities in the West Bank.

Settlement goods are often labelled either "produce of the West Bank", implying it could be Palestinian produce, or "produce of Israel", suggesting it could have originated on the Israeli side of the 1967 green line.

Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are not considered part of the state of Israel under international law.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/belgi...ling-goods-israeli-settlements