Bayit Yehudi bill would put labels on products from EU
bill would require products imported from countries that label Israeli goods to be labeled “Attention: This product is manufactured in a country that chose to label goods from the State of Israel.”
By LAHAV HARKOVEuropean Union flags(photo credit: REUTERS)
MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Bayit Yehudi), saying “what goes around comes around” with legislation, has proposed a bill to label products from countries that label Israeli products.The bill, which is on the Ministerial Committee for Legislation’s docket for Sunday, is a response to the EU’s directive for member states to label products from the West Bank, Golan Heights and east Jerusalem, which sparked an uproar in Israel and among politicians from the Right to the Center-Left.Moalem-Refaeli’s bill would require products imported from countries that label Israeli goods, or wares from parts of Israel, to be labeled “Attention: This product is manufactured in a country that chose to label goods from the State of Israel” in Hebrew.Anyone who breaks the law, if it passes, would be fined NIS 226,000.“Following moves by pro-Palestinian organizations in the world and the growth of the BDS movement, there is a need to deter countries from labeling Israeli goods,” Moalem-Refaeli said.According to the Bayit Yehudi MK, economic ties are a central factor in the relations between states, and they are stronger than any anti-Israel ideology.“The countries must know that, in response, the Israeli consumer may boycott their products,” she said.MK Michael Oren (Kulanu) symbolically made a similar move in November, going to a supermarket in Jerusalem and putting EU stickers on products from Spain, France and Germany in protest over the EU labeling guidelines.
