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Zie hieronder het artikel van Ian Black in The Guardian van 10 december 2009

 

 

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UK issues new guidance on labelling of food from illegal West Bank settlements

Ian Black, Middle East editor, and Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

The Guardian  /  December 10, 2009


Britain has acted to increase pressure on Israel
over its West Bank settlements by advising UK
supermarkets on how to distinguish between foods
from the settlements and Palestinian-manufactured goods.

The government's move falls short of a legal
requirement but is bound to increase the
prospects of a consumer boycott of products from
those territories. Israeli officials and settler
leaders were tonight highly critical of the decision.

Until now, food has been simply labelled "Produce
of the West Bank", but the new, voluntary
guidance issued by the Department for the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), says
labels could give more precise information, like
"Israeli settlement produce" or "Palestinian produce".

Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in East
Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were conquered
in the 1967 war. The British government and the
EU have repeatedly said Israel's settlement
project is an "obstacle to peace" in the Middle East.

EU law already requires a distinction to be made
between goods originating in Israel and those
from the occupied territories, though
pro-Palestinian campaigners say this is not always observed.

Separately, Defra said that traders would be
committing an offence if they did declare produce
from the occupied territories as "Produce of Israel".

Foods grown in Israeli settlements include herbs
sold in supermarkets, such as Waitrose, which
chop, package and label them as "West Bank"
produce, making no distinction between Israelis
and Palestinians. A total of 27 Israeli firms
operating in settlements and exporting to the UK
have been identified: their produce includes
fruit, vegetables, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals,
plastic and metal items and textiles.

Other retailers selling their products include
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, John Lewis and B&Q.

Goods from inside Israel's 1967 borders are
entitled to a preferential rate of import duty
under an agreement with the EU. Palestinian goods
from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem also
enjoy duty-free or reduced-tariff treatment.
Settlement products fall outside these two categories.

"This is emphatically not about calling for a
boycott of Israel," a Foreign Office spokesman
said. "We believe that would do nothing to
advance the peace process. We oppose any such
boycott of Israel. We believe consumers should be
able to choose for themselves what produce they
buy. We have been very clear both in public and
in private that settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace."

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber,
welcomed the public clarification that marking
produce from illegal settlements on occupied
territory as "produce of Israel" was illegal, but
said the government should have gone further.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, said:
"We support the right of consumers to know the
origin of the products they purchase. Trade with
Israeli settlements - which are illegal under
international law - contributes to their economic
viability and serves to legitimise them. It is
also clear from our development work in West Bank
communities that settlements have led to the
denial of rights and create poverty for many Palestinians."

Dani Dayan, the Argentinian-born leader of the
Yesha Council, which represents Israeli settlers,
said the decision was the "latest hostile step"
from Britain. "Products from our communities in
Judea and Samaria should be treated as any other
Israeli product," he said, using an Israeli term for the West Bank.

Israeli officials said they feared this was a
slide towards a broader boycott of Israeli goods.
Yigal Palmor, Israel's foreign ministry
spokesman, said his country's produce was being unfairly singled out.

"It looks like it is catering to the demands of
those whose ultimate goal is the boycott of
Israeli products," he said. "The message here
will very likely be used by pro-boycott
campaigners. It is a matter of concern."

He said the issue of different European customs
tariffs should not extend to different labelling
on supermarket shelves. "It is a totally
different thing and not required by the EU."

Israel came under intense US pressure early this
year to halt construction in settlements, but has
only adopted a temporary, partial freeze.
Palestinian leaders say they will not restart
peace negotiations until there is a full
settlement freeze in line with the US road map of 2003.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said it
welcomed the new guidance but urged Defra to go
further: "The government must seek prosecutions
of companies which smuggle settlement goods in under false labels.

"We have received many calls from people who were
distressed when they bought goods labelled
'Produce of the West Bank' because they thought
they were aiding the Palestinian economy, then
realised they were economically aiding Israel's illegal occupation.

"Particularly following Israel's massacre in
Gaza, consumers have been shocked at Israel's war
crimes and want to take action. They do not want
to feel complicit in Israel's occupation by buying stolen goods."


'Customers will now have honest information'

The most recent government figures suggest only
about £800,000 of food products, about
three-quarters of it olive oil (below right), was
imported from occupied Palestinian territories in
the three years between 2006 and 2008.

Sainsbury's, which sells dates and small amounts
of basil and tarragon, welcomed "the greater
clarity on how to label produce from occupied territories".

"This allows us to fulfil our commitment of
providing customers with clear and honest
information about the origins of their food," the
supermarket chain said."We have full traceability
back to settlement and/or grower."

Waitrose also said it would be following the
guidance on the small number of West Bank lines
it sold. "We source a small selection of herbs
from the West Bank area, grown on two
Israeli-managed farms, on which a Palestinian and
Israeli workforce have worked side by side for many years," said a spokesman.

"We are not motivated by politics. Instead our
policy is to ensure high standards of farming and
worker welfare on the farms from which we source.
Our buyers . have visited the two farms in the
West Bank to ensure that worker welfare meets the
high standards that we insist on. As part of our
normal sourcing policy we will be carrying out an
audit on these farms in the next six months."

This year the Co-op began selling Fairtrade olive
oil from the West Bank - a move hailed by Gordon
Brown, who said it meant British shoppers could
help Palestinian farmers make a living.

Toby Quantrill, head of public policy for the
Fairtrade Foundation, said farmers in Palestine
faced barriers to trade which jeopardised
opportunities to trade internationally on equal
terms with people making similar products. James Meikle

This article originally contained comments
wrongly attributed to Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's
chief executive. This has been corrected.