News / Palestine

Israel suspends contact with EU bodies in ‘peace’ process

Monday, 30 November 2015 6:17 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 30 November 2015 6:18 AM ]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by AFP)

Israel has suspended contacts with the European Union (EU) bodies involved in the so-called peace process with the Palestinians following a requirement by the 28-member politico-economic bloc that goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank be labeled.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign minister, ordered the ministry to carry out “a reassessment of the involvement of EU bodies in everything that is connected to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israel will continue to have diplomatic contacts with individual EU countries, such as Germany, Britain and France but not with EU institutions.

On November 11, the European Commission passed new guidelines for mandating the labeling of the products made in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A Palestinian (top) works at a textile factory in the Industrial Park of the illegal West Bank settlement of Barkan, southwest of Nablus, November 8, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Under the guidelines, Israeli producers must label farm goods and cosmetics that come from the unlawful settlements constructed in occupied lands if they are to be sold in EU member states.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry censured the move, describing it as an effort to exert pressure on the Tel Aviv regime over its settlement expansion activities. It also summoned the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen.

“We regret that the EU has chosen, for political reasons, to take such an exceptional and discriminatory step, inspired by the boycott movement,” the statement said, referring to the international movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

An image, taken on May 8, 2015, shows a general view of the East al-Quds (Jerusalem) Israeli settlement of Ramat Shlomo (foreground). (Photo by AFP)

The BDS Movement is a global campaign that uses economic and political pressure on Israel in line with the goal of ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land particularly through illegal settlement constructions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.

Much of the international community regards the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were occupied by Israel in 1967, and they are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

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