Following decisions from the South African government and Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain to distinguish between products made in the occupied territories from those west of the green line, the Associated Press reports on the “Made in Israel” label.
From “Made in Israel? Not a simple question“:
Asked to explain the “Made in Israel” label for products made outside Israeli territory, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor reached for an unorthodox defense, arguing that it is not intended as a geographical indication.
“My point is not the sovereignty over the West Bank, but who is the authority that has supervised the product,” Palmor told The Associated Press. “Since the products of the settlements are made under Israeli regulations and standards, they are ‘made in Israel.'”
He said there were other cases of contestable labeling, including by the Palestinians who label products from parts of the West Bank governed by the Palestinian Authority as “Made in Palestine.” There is formally no state of Palestine, he noted.
The Palestinians have long called for a boycott of goods made in Israeli settlements and even have lit bonfires to destroy them.
“We are calling for boycotting the Israeli products simply because the Israelis shouldn’t benefit from occupying our land and our people,” said boycott activist Murad Sudani, who heads the Palestinian Writers Union . .
Yigal Dilmoni, a settler leader, said the criticism is unfair. “All the communities in Judea and Samaria are part of the state of Israel,” he said, using the biblical terms for the West Bank. “So of course these products are made in Israel.”
*”My point is not the sovereignty over the West Bank, but who is the authority that has supervised the product,” Palmor told The Associated Press. “Since the products of the settlements are made under Israeli regulations and standards, they are ‘made in Israel.'”*
Fascinating. Who would have thought he would give such a striking articulation of why Israel is an apartheid state?
Is Yigal Dilmoni claiming that Israeli sovereignty has been extended to the West Bank with his comment? If he sincerely believes himself and other settlers to be living IN Israel, then the indigenous people should AT ONCE demand all the rights of FULL citizenship that they have been thus far denied!
So Israel is a virtual state, which exists wherever Israel decrees it does. What a convenient way of colonising others. Israel is an ideological construction, not a real country, one based on an invented people with an invented history. No wonder they have to keep inventing their borders.
>> Yigal Dilmoni, a settler leader, said the criticism is unfair.
Poor whiny little settler leader. Someone forgot to tell him that aggressor-victimhood’s a tough gig. :-(
Yigal Palmor is talking nonsense, he should consult the decision of the highest court of the European Union the ECJ in BritaGmbH v Hauptzollamp Hamberg Hafen case No 386/08 in 2010 here the court declared that products manufactured in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Gaza strip by an Israeli company do not qualify for preferential EU treatment because no part of those territories are part of Israel and they say an examination of both Euro med agreements the EC signed with Israel and the PLO for the PA confirm that fact. Also the Generalised system of preference[GSP] by which the European Union determine where goods originate ie, not where they have been shipped from, but where they are deemed to have been produced or manufactured is also clear. This will have huge consequences for Israel if Palmor persists in this nonsense.