All the member states of the European Union will now have to identify those products that are made in Israeli settlements in their labels, ruled the top court of the EU.

It this decision by the court has been welcomed by human rights groups but it is likely that the decision will cause anger in Israel.

“Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the state of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin,” said the European court of justice. All of the products that are manufactured within the Israeli settlements should have a label that provides an “indication of that provenance” which will allow the consumers of such products to make “informed choices” when they see the labeling while purchasing, said the Luxembourg-based court.

The strategy of setting up of Israeli settlement in parts of Palestine as alleged has for long not gone down well with the EU and it has aid that such an action are detrimental to the possible two state solution to the Israel and Palestine problem because the former is gobbling up lands that that Palestinians claim to be theirs.

Reacting to the direction, Israel called the separate labeling for Israeli settlements made products as unfair and discriminatory and alleged that it is being meted out unfair treatment because other countries involved in disputes over land do not get the same treatment as Israel.

While insisting that the products made in the settlements should not carry the generic “Made in Israel” tag so that such products are easily identifiable for consumers who can then make an informed purchasing decision.

During the 1967 Middle East war the West Bank and East Jerusalem was captured by Israel and soon after began putting in settlers in both those areas. And those two disputed areas are claimed to be their own by the Palestinians and consider them to be part of a future state for them – a stance that has obtained international support.

Construction for settlement in the two disputed territories is opposed by the international community and some countries have even called such acts by Israel to be illegal. The establishment of an independent Palestine alongside Israel is apparently undermined by the continued growth of such settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These two regions are currently home to about 700,000 Israelis which is about 10 per cent of the Jewish population of Israel.

The ECJ stressed that settlements “give concrete expression to a policy of population transfer conducted by that state outside its territory, in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law”.

It was “an important step toward EU member states upholding their duty not to participate in the fiction that illegal settlements are part of Israel. European consumers are entitled to be confident that the products they purchase are not linked to serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said Lotte Leichtm, the EU director of the human rights organization called Human Rights Watch.

The European court was “approving putting a new kind of yellow star on Jewish-made products,” said Prof Eugene Kontorovich, the director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, of Israel. “This blatant discrimination makes it more urgent than ever for the Trump administration to defy Brussels by making official what has long been US practice, to allow these products to be labelled ‘Made in Israel’,” said Kontorovich.

(Adapted from AlJazeera.com)

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