Sun 12 June 2022:
Israel slammed Norway’s decision to label Israeli settlement products with their location of origin on Saturday.
“will adversely affect bilateral relations between Israel and Norway, as well as Norway’s relevance to promoting relations between Israel and the Palestinians”, according to a statement from Israel’s foreign ministry.
Norway’s long-standing role as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was referenced by the ministry.
On Friday, Norway’s social democrat government announced its new policy, claiming that it was not enough to label products coming from the occupied territories as Israeli.
The measure mainly concerns imports of wine, olive oil, fruits and vegetables, and will apply to products from the occupied West Bank “including East Jerusalem” and occupied areas of the Golan Heights, Oslo said.
Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed in an interview with Norwegian news agency NTB that this in no way constituted a boycott of Israel.
“Norway has good relations with Israel,” she added. “That must continue.”
In 2015, the European Commission recommended that its member states follow this practice, which the European Court of Justice upheld in 2019.
The basis of Norway’s decision, as stated in the 2019 ruling, is that consumers should not be deceived by misleading origin or product labeling.
The US announced during the Trump administration that goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories might be labeled as Israeli.
The settlements occupied by “Tel Aviv” are illegal under international law, though they have continued under successive Israeli governments since 1967, growing to include more and more Palestinian territories over the years.
Throughout May, the Israeli occupation made announcements about expanding its settlements in the occupied West Bank, occupied Palestine, by 4,500 settlement units.
“Tel Aviv’s” announcement in early May came in light of preparations for a trip by US President Joe Biden to the occupied land, set to take place later this month amid calls on his administration to curb the Israeli expansionism and treading onto more Palestinian land.
Several sources familiar with the matter told Axios at the time that the Israeli government, pushed by pressure from the Biden administration, had decided to reduce the number of approved settlement units from 5,800 to 4,000. However, a smaller number still constitutes a violation of the rights of Palestinians, a drop in the sea of those committed by Israelis.
“Israel” decided in April to “delay” the approval of building 4,000 settlements in the West Bank – and with the worsening security situation in occupied Palestine, the Israelis are being cautious with such provocations.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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