BRUSSELS — At least half the
member states of the European Union, including France and the UK,
currently support labeling products manufactured in Israeli settlements,
a European official said on Tuesday.
In
parallel, European diplomats have been mulling the possibility of
ending EU funding for the Palestinian Authority should negotiations
between Israel and the PLO fail, the Times of Israel has learned. Such a
move, if undertaken, could lead to the financial collapse of the PA,
which receives European funding estimated at between €300 and
€500 million per year.
Andreas Reinicke, a German diplomat serving as
the EU special representative for the Middle East peace process
told journalists at the European External Action Service — the EU organ
responsible for foreign policy — that the current European stance
represents growing discomfort in Brussels with Israeli construction
beyond the Green Line even as negotiations are underway with the
Palestinians.
“When I began my position in February, only
two states supported labeling, now 14 or 15 states support it. The trend
is clear,” Reinicke said.
The EU agreed last week to include Israel in its prestigious scientific cooperation project Horizon 2020
following protracted negotiations between Israeli Justice Minister and
chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni and the EU’s foreign policy chief,
Catherine Ashton, on November 26. The partnership was delayed due to new
European guidelines, scheduled to take effect in January, which bar
funding for Israeli institutions in the West Bank.
The demand to clearly mark products
manufactured in the settlements was originally initiated by the BDS
movement in Europe, but the initiative is rapidly gaining traction in
mainstream political discourse — a trend Israeli diplomats serving in
Europe are attempting to curb. Last month, BDS activists in Ireland placed stickers reading “For justice in Palestine boycott Israel” on Israeli products sold at Tesco supermarket chain.
The worrisome blanket boycotting of Israel
could be curtailed if Israel showed serious commitment to peace talks
with the Palestinians, Reinicke said.
Palestinian politicians, meanwhile, are
continuing to demarcate the borders between “legitimate Israel” and
Israeli entities beyond the Green Line that should be shunned.
On Tuesday, PLO Executive Committee member
Hanan Ashrawi called on the Dutch government to exclude settlement
companies from the Netherlands-Israel Cooperation Forum set to be
launched next weekend.
“This is incomprehensible and unacceptable,”
Ashrawi said in a press statement. “The official policy of the Dutch
government is to discourage economic relations of Dutch companies with
settlements. How can the Dutch government establish a cooperation forum
with Israel which facilitates these relations and effectively supports
the settlement economy?”
Palestinian law bans any form of cooperation with Israeli settlements.
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