Herzog to UK envoy: Labeling settlement products ‘rewards terror’

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog tells British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey that a European Union plan to mark products made in factories over the Green Line is “a prize for terror.”

The EU will soon decide exactly how to label the products, after the European Parliament passed a resolution last month to approve the measure.

Herzog says he “strongly opposes this harmful and unnecessary measure,” saying that “this is a measure that serves only one purpose – continuing the hate and regional conflict. Marking these products is an act of violence by extremists who want to further inflame the situation and the EU is falling into their trap.”

The Zionist Union chairman also calls labeling the products “a prize that Europe is bestowing for terror,” and warns that the move “will mean a blow to tens of thousands of Palestinians employed in factories in Judea and Samaria under proper conditions who bring in an income for their families.”

He called the decision counterproductive to the peace process. “My stance on separating from the Palestinians is well-known,” he says, “but you will not achieve this with this kind of step.”