Anti-Israel bigotry and bias EU

Eugene Kontorovich: European Court of Justice “Makes Up Rules For Israel” in label policy ruling…


 

Caroline Glick: “We respect international law, you guys make it up”…

 

 

THREAD on the EJC decision re Israel product labeling:

1) It’s as bad as was expected by observers, including myself. The Court affirms the EU’s unique labeling policy that only applies to Israeli products. Reupping my analysis when the policy was first adopted.

 

2) The most glaring aspect of EU’s decision is that it says consumers have the right to know if a product made in occupied territories or where serious int’l law problems exist. But EU does not req “Made in Moroccan Settlements” labels, or any other such labels anywhere in the world.

 

3) Nor are the poised to introduce such requirements, because everyone knows this is not about what law requires, but what the Jewish State deserves. So don’t hold your breath for “Made in Tibet,” Made in Occupied Donbass, Russian Settlements Crimea, or other labels

 

4) But this is not a double standard, ie mere failure to apply and enforce rules. It is worse: making up a “rule” for Israel and remembering everywhere else that the “rule” has a silent footnote.

 

5) The Court’s conclusion that Israeli settlements violate the Geneva Convention will be much-touted by Israel’s critics. But look at the opinion: this massive claim is accompanied by ZERO analysis, merely citations to non-binding and non-legal statements from UN orgs.

 

6) That is legal boot-strapping at its worse: the Court strings a bunch of precedential zeros together and says it adds up to one.

 

7) This is not about Palestinian rights or a two-state solution. Court makes clear the ruling applies in full to “Syria,” ie Golan Heights, handing a huge win to Assad. It is not pro-Pal, it is anti-Israel. Of course products from Turkish-occupied Syria will not be thus labeled.

 

8. US response should be clear. US labeling rules actually require “Made in West Bank” labeling (but without the prejudicial other language ECJ requires). It has never been enforced, and @SecPompeo should immediately restore pre’96 “Made in Israel” labeling rule.

 

Here is Kontorovich’s piece from 4 years ago on the subject:

By 

THIS week the European Commission announced guidelines suggesting that Israeli products from areas that came under its control in 1967 be labeled “Israeli Settlement” products and not “Made in Israel” as they have been until now. The policy carves out a special legal rule for Israel, not only contradicting the European Union’s own official positions on these issues, but also going against rulings of European national courts, and violating basic tenets of the World Trade Organization.

 

Faced with criticism from both the right and the left in Israel and the United States, the European Union claims its action is merely “technical,” rather than politically motivated or punitive. Yet this is belied by the fact that the measure comes in response to explicitly political demands for labeling by some member states’ foreign ministers, as well as anti-Israel NGOs.

 

In fact, the labeling controversy must be viewed as just one step in a broader, purposeful and gradual escalation of anti-Israel measures by the European Union. Two years ago, the commission promulgated a regulation that barred spending money on Israeli academic, scientific or cultural projects in the West Bank or Golan Heights. Then the union began refusing to allow imports of certain Israeli agricultural products. Last year, 15 European states issued warnings, alerting people to unspecified legal dangers of interacting with Israeli settlements. These steps, while supposedly motivated by what the European Union sees as Israel’s occupation of territory, have been applied only to Israel, and not to other countries regarded as occupiers in international law, such as Morocco or Turkey.

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