Norway labels products from Israeli settlements

The historical mediator of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norway refuses to allow the colonial territories, in relation to the line of the fourth of June 1967, to mention “Israel” on their products.

Imitating the European Union, the Norwegian government decided to adopt specific labels on Israeli settlement products, which led to the condemnation of Israel on Saturday. The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded on Saturday to this decision, which also provides a specific reference to the occupied territories, “which will negatively affect bilateral relations between Israel and Norway, as well as Norway’s importance to strengthening relations between Israel and the Palestinians.” , in the current situation.

Thus, Israeli diplomacy hints at the mediating role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Norway has been trying to play for years, with the main example of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. It declared that the original “Israel” was only suitable for products coming from territories under Israeli control on June 4, 1967.

This is not a boycott of Israel.

According to Oslo, “food coming from Israeli-occupied areas must be labeled with the region from which the product comes and (indicate) whether it comes from an Israeli settlement if so.” The Norwegian government said the measure would apply to the occupied territories in the Golan Heights and the West Bank, “including East Jerusalem”. It mainly concerns imports of wine, olive oil, fruits and vegetables.

The head of diplomacy of the Scandinavian country stressed, in a statement to the Norwegian agency NTB, that it is “in no way a boycott of Israel” and that the boycott according to the Oslo Accords remained a “bad policy”. “Norway has good relations with Israel. This must continue,” said Minister Anneken Hoetfeldt, a member of the Social Democratic Norwegian government.

This choice of label was previously made by the European Commission in 2015 and recommended by member states and then confirmed by a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2019. “Consumers are not misled by the lack of labels on the origin of products”.

Under the Trump administration, the United States announced the “Israel” labeling of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlement, illegal under international law, has continued under every Israeli government since 1967.