US issues telling reminder of labeling rules on Israeli products from West Bank

In a move that seemed designed to underline US opposition to Israel’s settlement policies, Washington has issued a reminder that products imported from the West Bank or Gaza Strip should not be labeled “Made in Israel,” the State Department confirmed Thursday.

The guidance was issued last week by US Customs. Debate has since erupted after media reports suggested Washington was hardening its stance against Israeli settlement policy. Sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Thursday night that they were studying the new US notice.

The move came soon after US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro sharply criticized Israel’s West Bank settlement policy, alleging that Israel has two standards of law in the territory — one for Israelis and another for Palestinians. Shapiro’s remarks prompted a furious critique from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has also frequently lambasted the European Union for its policy of requiring labels on West Bank settlement products, while the US has backed the EU position.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that the US decision to reissue its labeling policy had been taken after complaints that some West Bank products had been mislabeled prior to US import.

January 23, 2016 US notice on West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements

“US Customs and Border Protection reissued guidance on their marking requirements,” he told reporters. “It in no way supersedes prior rulings or regulations.

“And nor does it impose additional requirements with respect to merchandise imported from the West Bank, Gaza Strip or Israel.”

Wine barrels age at Psagot Winery, located in a settlement of the same name in the hills of the central West Bank. (photo credit: Psagot Winery/JTA)

The US Customs statement, visible on the agency’s website, restates the terms of 1995 and 1997 laws requiring that goods from Gaza and the West Bank be labeled as such.

“It is not acceptable to mark the aforementioned goods with the words ‘Israel,’ ‘Made in Israel,’ ‘Occupied Territories-Israel’ or any variation thereof,” the statement said.

Some Israeli settlers living in the West Bank are known to label products for export as being from Israel, and the European Union recently acted to ban the practice.

The US reminder, unlike the EU guidelines, does not mention the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and effectively annexed in 1981.

The State Department reminder underscored ongoing US opposition to Israel’s settlement policies.

US Ambassador Dan Shapiro speaks at the 9th Annual International Conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on January 18, 2016. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv)

Ambassador Shapiro last week said the US administration was “concerned and perplexed” by Israel’s settlement policy, which he said raised “honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions.”

The comments drew a harsh response from Netanyahu’s office, which called them “unacceptable and incorrect.”

Shapiro later apologized for the timing of his remarks — which came a day after a Palestinian teenager killed a Jewish mother of six in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, and on the day that a pregnant woman was stabbed in another Palestinian attack in the Tekoa settlement. But he stood by the content of his comments.

Netanyahu has also repeatedly condemned the European labeling move, which Israel feels discriminates against Jewish producers and amounts to a boycott. For its part, by contrast, the State Department last week came out in support of the European Union labeling guidelines, and said that settlement product labeling is not tantamount to a boycott.

Earlier this month, the prime minister called for a “reset” in relations with the EU, accusing it of unfairly singling out Israel.

“We have to reset our relationship with the EU. I hope we can do this on better terms,” the prime minister told foreign journalists in Jerusalem.

“There is a natural tendency in the EU establishment to single out Israel and treat it in ways that other countries are not being dealt with, and especially other democracies,” he said. “And I think it’s wrong. I think it should be corrected.”

The United States opposes Israel’s settlements, but insists its labeling regulations don’t discriminate between Israeli and Palestinian producers.

“Our understanding is that there were allegations of mislabeling, around nine or ten complaints,” Toner said, explaining why US Customs had reissued its guidance.

“As you know, US guidelines don’t differentiate between products produced in settlements or anywhere else in the West Bank,” he said.