Showing posts with label Labels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Labels. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Judea and Samaria Manufacturers Refuse to Put Discriminatory Labels on Products by Ahuva Balofsky - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

The Jordan Valley. (Photo:Dickelbers/ BreakingIsraelNews)

The Jordan Valley. (Photo:Dickelbers/ BreakingIsraelNews)

Germany Demands Labels From Settlements Read "Occupied Territories"


“And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over the Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster.” Deuteronomy 27:2 (The Israel Bible™)
Israelis living in the Jordan Valley have vehemently refused to label their products as coming from “occupied territories”, sending a scathing letter to Germany’s ambassador, several media outlets reported. According to Israel National News, David Elhayani, head of the Jordan Valley regional council, was responding to a phone request from a German marketing company.
The German company, Gaia, contacted a local farmer, informing him that their clients would like a prominent label applied to Jordan Valley products, stating “the product was produced in territories occupied by the government of Israel.” This is accordance with new EU guidelines, set in November, which forbid products made beyond the pre-1967 borders of Israel to be labeled “Made in Israel”.
Elhayani, himself a farmer, dashed off an angry letter last week to German ambassador to Israel Clemens von Goetze. Calling the demand “discriminatory” and “politically motivated”, he refused on behalf of the community to comply.
Reminding the ambassador of his country’s Nazi past, Elhayani wrote, “We will not label any of our products. In our eyes the demand to label goods is equal to the demand from the dark and awful days of the past when Jews were labeled in Europe.”
Menorah of old replica necklace, from the City of David. Buy Now!
The timing of the demand, Elhayani argued, also showed incredible insensitivity to the plight of Israelis today, coming as it does in the midst of a terror wave which has claimed the lives of 29 Israelis and 3 foreign nationals in the past five months. “The state of Israel in these days is dealing with a wave of violent and severe terror. This decision for the harmful demand by the European Union comes on the background of this serious reality – it’s simply scandalous.”
According to The Jerusalem Post, Elhayani told von Goetze that 60 percent of Jordan Valley residents rely on agriculture for the income, and 20 percent of the region’s exports go to Europe.
Elhayani’s comments echoed those of Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel Friday, who said this was not the first time Europe had chosen to label Jews. Ariel demanded the EU renounce its “wretched boycott decision”.
Judea and Samaria are the heartland of Biblical Israel, and Jewish settlements there represent the return, after 2,000 years, of a people in exile to its home. The EU claims its decision to label Israeli settlement goods stems from an unwillingness to support what it considers an illegal occupation, but agreements reached with other nations in similarly questionable positions belie the claim. Europe also announced recently its agreements with Israel will no longer be applicable beyond the so-called “green line”, another move decried by Israel.
The US has quietly followed Europe’s example, with the US Customs Department “reissuing” a 1995 order to label West Bank and Gaza products. In reality, however, the original order applied only to Palestinian-made products from those regions, whereas the current directive is being applied to Israeli-made products, as well. Violators are subject to stiff fines.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Obama Joins Israel Boycott, Labels West Bank Goods - BREITBART/Associated Press

Obama at Western Wall 2008 (Associated Press)

Obama Joins Israel Boycott, Labels West Bank Goods

Jan. 28, 2016  BREITBART/Associated Press

In a step towards joining an Israel boycott, the U.S. is now requiring goods originating from the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) to be labeled separately from products from the rest of Israel, following the European Union’s crackdown on products from the disputed territories.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has issued new mandates requiring that West Bank products not be marked “Israel,” citing a notice from the year 1997 that offers such instructions.
The memo from DHS, titled, “West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements,” reads:  
“The purpose of this message is to provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin marking requirements for goods that are manufactured in the West Bank.”
According to the instructions, “It is not acceptable to mark” goods from the West Bank as having been from “Israel,” “Made in Israel,” or from “Occupied Territories-Israel.”
In its statement, U.S. Customs threatens, “goods that are erroneously marked as products of Israel will be subject to an enforcement action carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”
“Goods entering the United States must conform to the U.S. marking statute and regulations promulgated thereunder,” the statement adds.
Groups advocating “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) against Israel have demanded separate labeling of Israeli goods from the West Bank and the Golan Heights as a step toward a total boycott of Israeli products.
Israel maintains that under international law, the West Bank is “disputed,” and not “occupied,” since there was no legitimate sovereign in the territory when Israel took control of it in self-defense after Jordan attacked Israel in 1967.
Many of the products that will be affected are made within areas of the West Bank, such as the Etzion bloc, are likely to be part of Israel under any peace agreement.
The new instructions were published by DHS over the weekend, following complaints from Palestinian and fringe leftist outfits that the U.S. was not complying with a 1995 law that calls for the marking of goods from the West Bank, Israel National News reports.
In November, the European Union mandated the labeling of Israeli products from the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Critics, including presidential candidates, have argued the labeling of products only from “Israeli areas” of the West Bank, and not Palestinian-controlled territories, is a discriminatory and anti-Semitic act.
The EU now refuses to allow the label “Made in Israel” on products made anywhere outside of the pre-1967 lines.
Following the implementation of EU labeling mandates, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the actions an “exceptional and discriminatory step.”
This will not advance peace; it will certainly not advance truth and justice,” he added.
Last week, the State Department effectively endorsed the anti-Israel labeling measures.
On Wednesday, to mark Holocaust Remembrance day, President Obama pledged to confront worldwide anti-Semitism:
“Here, tonight, we must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it,” he said from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.