EU parliament president breaks ranks on labelling settlement foods


February 10, 2016
Sarah Benton

This posting has 4 items:

1) EJP: Martin Schulz opposes the labelling of products manufactured in Israeli settlements, ‘decision hurts the Palestinians’;
2) Al Monitor: EU leadership divided over settlements;
3) EJC: Czech lawmakers oppose EU guidelines on West Bank settlement labelling, December 2015;
4) Notes and Links on Schulz’s relationship with Israel;

qalqilya-checkpoint
Lucky Palestinians with work in Israeli settlements. They have to start queuing before dawn because of the time taken to get through the checkpoints, this one at Qalqilya. Photo by Scott Smith, Flickr


Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, opposes the labelling of products manufactured in Israeli settlements, ‘decision hurts the Palestinians’

By Yossi Lempkowicz,  European Jewish Press (EJP)
January 17, 2016

BRUSSELS —European Parliament President Martin Schulz expressed his opposition to the labelling of settlements products, saying that such a move mainly hurts the Palestinians “who make an honest living in working in factories there.”

He made the remarks during a meeting with of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein in Berlin. Edelstein said,

countries and people in Europe cannot say they oppose antisemitism and in the same breath be anti-Israel. Israel will survive the labelling of products. Those who will not survive are the thousands of Palestinian families who work shoulder to shoulder with their Jewish friends and have a shared life there. It will hurt their economy, their lives and their families, and it will destroy the seeds of peace that exist in those employment zones.”

In November, the EU approved new guidelines for the 28 member states to label products made in West Bank settlements, drawing angry condemnation from Israel.According to the guidelines published, the labels will need to point out that the product is made in an Israeli settlement, and not just the geographical origin.

The EU claimed the move, which has been in the works for over a year, was independent of any political considerations, and meant only to clarify misleading labels claiming that goods from the territories originated in Israel.However, Jerusalem considers the decision as akin to a boycott of Israel. The foreign ministry at the time warned the decision could affect EU-Israel ties and accused the EU of applying a double standard to Israel “while ignoring 200 other territorial disputes around the world.”

According to Israeli press reports, the Israeli foreign ministry begun last week an emergency effort to halt plans by the European Union member states to intensify their distinction between Israel and the territories beyond the pre-1967 Green Line, ahead of a meeting of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the European Union of holding his country to a double standard, while reserving special criticism for Sweden., saying its call to investigate Israel in the deaths of Palestinian attackers was “immoral” and “stupid.””There is a natural tendency in the EU establishment to single out Israel and treat it in ways that other countries are not being dealt with, and especially other democracies,” he told a gathering of foreign journalists.Netanyahu said ties with the EU needed to be “reset”.

In November, following the labelling decision, Israel suspended contacts with EU bodies involved in peace efforts with the Palestinians, though Netanyahu said bilateral ties with nearly all EU countries were strong.Relations with Sweden, however, have deteriorated since it recognized Palestinian statehood last year, and Netanyahu lambasted a call by the Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrôm to investigate whether Israeli forces were guilty of ‘’extrajudicial killings’’ of Palestinian during the recent wave of knife and car-ramming attacks against Israelis.

“It’s outrageous, it’s immoral and it’s stupid,” Netanyahu said. “People are defending themselves against assailants wielding knives who are about to stab them to death, and they shoot the people — and that’s extrajudicial killings?”


martin-schulz-eu
Martin Schulz, German President of the EU parliament

EU leadership divided over settlements

According to Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, the president of the European Parliament opposes labelling settlement products, despite the official EU position.

By Akiva Eldar, trans. Ruti Sinai, Al Monitor / Israel Pulse
February 09, 2016

The dispute over the settlements, for years a divisive issue in Israeli politics, has recently penetrated into the heart of European politics, too. There’s growing anger in the European Parliament against President Martin Shultz, who has apparently adopted the position of the Israeli right regarding an economic project in the occupied territories.

Twenty-six members of the parliament from different factions are demanding that Schulz clarify the meaning of a Jan. 14 Facebook post by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein: “I was pleased to hear today from European Parliament President Martin Schulz, with whom I met in Berlin, that he opposes the labelling of products from Israel.” Despite his choice of words (products from Israel, not products from West Bank settlements), it’s safe to assume that the Knesset speaker, who himself lives across the Green Line, knows that the labelling pertains only to products made in the settlements, which are not recognized internationally as part of the State of Israel.

The meeting between the two parliamentary leaders took place five days before EU foreign ministers approved a resolution stating that all agreements between the union and Israel do not apply across the Green Line. As in the decision to label settlement products, the ministers were careful to make clear that the resolution does not constitute a boycott; it simply provides European consumers with information about the provenance of products they want to buy.

According to Edelstein’s comments, Schulz agreed with him that those who would be most affected by the labelling of settlement products marketed in EU member states would be Palestinian workers. The Knesset speaker wrote in the same post that he had told his European colleague,

Israel will survive the product labelling! Not so the thousands of Palestinian families of those who work shoulder-to-shoulder with their Jewish friends and conduct coexistence there. This will hurt their economy and families and will also destroy the seeds of peace in those employment areas.

In a particularly pointed letter sent by the European lawmakers to the president of the EU’s top institution, they stressed that all the Palestinian commercial associations had welcomed the labelling decision, as did 550 prominent Israeli figures, among them Nobel laureate in economics Daniel Kahneman. Signatories of the letter noted that the cost of the Israeli occupation, which includes the theft of lands, water resources and other infrastructure, is estimated at some 85% of the Palestinian GDP. The members of parliament expressed surprise at the fact that Schulz presented a position contradicting the decision by the body he heads, even as Israel keeps expanding the settlements and thus undermines the two-state solution.

Saeb Erekat, in his role as secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, wrote Schulz an equally sharp letter, contending that his view of the settlement enterprise is not commensurate with a two-state arrangement. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Monitor, Erekat defined the situation in the territories as “a reality of apartheid.” The Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, which also responded to Schulz’ surprising declaration, reminded him in a Jan. 16 letter that the apartheid regime in South Africa had also claimed that an embargo would hurt the black workers who made a “decent” living in the vineyards and mines owned by the white minority. The forum is anxiously awaiting Schulz’ response.

Schulz is acquainted with the forum, an umbrella organization of peace groups. On a February 2014 visit to Israel he had an opportunity to meet the group’s previous director, Ron Pundak, who passed away not long after. Pundak participated in a private dinner at which the European visitor heard about the serious damage inflicted by the government’s settlement policy on the relationship with the Palestinians. Another participant in that dinner spoke to Al-Monitor about it on condition of anonymity. He said that he had complained to Schultz that too many European states are avoiding the labelling of settlement products. That person has since been elected to the Knesset on behalf of the Zionist Camp, headed by Isaac Herzog.

That same Knesset member was noticeably silent when Herzog boasted this past November that he had told the British ambassador to Israel that product labelling “rewards terror” and that Europe would not achieve a thing with measures of this kind. Like the other members of his parliamentary faction, the newly elected politician did not make a sound when he read his party chairman’s claim to Ambassador David Quarrey that labelling would be tantamount to a “blow to tens of thousands of Palestinians employed in factories in the West Bank under proper conditions who bring in an income for their families.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not have said it better.

On the other hand, how can one complain that the president of the European Parliament opposes labelling (not even boycotting) of products originating in the occupied territories, when the leader of the Israeli opposition condemns this modest step? If members of the main opposition party are silent regarding its leader’s claim that settlement product labelling will harm the Palestinians, how does the left expect a mainstream German politician to act? How can leftist organizations expect Schulz to denounce the settlement policy, when opposition chairman Herzog and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid condemn them for daring to encourage the government of Brazil to oppose the appointment of former settlement leader Dani Dayan as Israel’s ambassador to Brasilia?

This is not the first time, and probably not the last, that Europe has failed to speak in a unified voice regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If leftist Jewish Israeli activists who expose the injustice of the occupation are considered “traitors” and called “plants” in their own land, it’s no wonder European politicians agree that the occupation is good for the occupied. As long as the elected representatives of the Israeli public — from the radical right all the way to the moderate left — stand up as one against any measure interpreted as exerting external pressure on Israel, Europe will avoid taking a clear stand. It will strongly commit itself to advancing peace only together with a committed Israeli partner — only with the rise of a strong Israeli political camp that views the Palestinian leadership as a true partner for peace.



Czech lawmakers oppose EU guidelines on West Bank settlement labelling

By European Jewish Congress
December 2015

The lower house of the Czech Parliament has called on the government to reject European Union guidelines for the labelling of products from Israeli settlements.

In two separate votes on Thursday, Czech lawmakers approved resolutions criticising the European Commission’s decision as politically motivated, describing it as non-binding and urging the Czech government not to abide by it.

According to the measures, released by the European Commission last month, fruit, vegetables and other products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights cannot be labeled as made in Israel. The decision has come under criticism in Israel and elsewhere, with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slamming it as discriminatory.

A group of 27 Czech lawmakers, headed by Robin Böhnisch of the ruling Social Democrats party, denounced the measures shortly after they were published.

“I do consider the settlements a big problem for Israel, both domestically and in terms of foreign relations,” Böhnisch told his fellow lawmakers.

“But the European Commission’s argument that the guidelines are a service for European consumers is absurd. It is obviously meant to put Israel under pressure, and at a time that requires meticulous political work rather than clumsy activism,” Böhnisch said.

Petr Papoušek, the head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic, the country’s EJC affiliate, told JTA he welcomed the decision of the lower house.

“I’m glad it was passed and I would like to thank the MPs for it,” Papoušek said. “It has become obvious that labelling goods from the settlements will not help the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Instead, it will hurt the process and will also make the situation worse for the economy in the Palestinian territory.”

The resolutions won backing from all parties in the house with the exception of the Communists, who argued the Czech Republic was too complacent towards Israel.

Notes and Links

Martin Schultz is a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament

Food safety MEPs oppose regulation on country of origin of meat
(it should be tougher), January 2014

EU issues guidelines on labelling products from Israeli settlements

from Guardian November 12, 2015

On Tuesday [10th November 2015] a letter leaked to the Guardian showed that Netanyahu had written or spoken to a number of senior European figures, including European parliament president Martin Schulz, asking for their help to block the move.

In a letter to Schulz, the Israeli prime minister said the move was politicised, adding that it could “lead to an actual boycott [of Israel], emboldening those who are not interested in Israeli-Palestinian peace but eliminating Israel altogether”.

from Say a Big ‘Thank You’ to Martin Schulz, Avraham Burg, Haaretz, February 14, 2014

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, is a close friend of mine. On most issues connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict we disagree. He is closer to the Israeli mainstream, and his positions resemble those of Labour Party chairman Isaac Herzog. He once told me, during a frank and stern conversation, “For me, the new Germany exists only in order to ensure the existence of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

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