LONDON (WJC)–Israeli officials reacted angrily about new product labeling guidelines issued by the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on goods produced in Israel and the Palestinian territories. “We think this is singling out Israel and it plays into the hands of those who are calling for a boycott of Israeli goods,” a spokesman for Israel’s Embassy in London said.
In the future, according to the government, UK food labels can distinguish between goods from Palestinians in the occupied territories and produce coming from Israeli settlements. Food packaging guidelines advise a change from labels usually naming only Israel or West Bank as the source. On its website, the department stated: “The Government has received requests from retailers, consumer groups and NGOs for greater clarity about which origin should be stated on food and drink goods that have been produced and packed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Their enquiries have focused particularly on the distinction between products from Palestinian producers and products from Israeli settlements in the OPT…
“Traders and retailers may wish to indicate whether the product originated from an Israeli settlement or from Palestinian producers. This could take the form, for example, of ‘Produce of the West Bank (Israeli settlement produce)’ or ‘Produce of the West Bank (Palestinian produce)’, as appropriate.”
However, the British government maintains its opposition to any boycott of Israeli goods, but states that the settlements pose an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy in Britain, welcomed the new guidelines, saying: “We have been calling for this for two years, since we began lobbying major British supermarkets when we discovered that they were routinely selling products marked ‘produce of the West Bank’ which were in fact the produce of illegal settlements. This is a very positive response by the British government.”
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress