The EU’s top court on Tuesday ruled that member countries must identify products made in Israeli settlements on their labels, in a decision welcomed by rights groups but likely to anger Israel.
The European Court of Justice said that “foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the state of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin".
The court in Luxembourg said that labels on products from Israeli settlements must provide an “indication of that provenance” so consumers could make “informed choices”.
The EU has consistently spoken out against Israeli settlement expansion, saying it undermines hopes for a two-state solution by grabbing land claimed by the Palestinians.
Israel says the labelling is unfair and discriminatory, and that other countries involved in disputes over land are not sanctioned.
The EU wants any produce made in the settlements to be easily identifiable to shoppers and insists that such products should not carry the generic “Made in Israel” tag.
The international community opposes settlement construction and many countries consider the outposts to be illegal.
The court stressed that settlements “give concrete expression to a policy of population transfer conducted by that state outside its territory, in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law".
It said any failure to identify the point of origin of products meant “consumers have no way of knowing that a foodstuff comes from a locality constituting a settlement established in one of those territories in breach of the rules of international humanitarian law.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed the ruling. Its EU director, Lotte Leicht, said it was “an important step towards EU member states upholding their duty not to participate in the fiction that illegal settlements are part of Israel".
"European consumers are entitled to be confident that the products they purchase are not linked to serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Ms Leicht said.
It is not clear how the ruling will be enforced.
European retailers would normally be expected to do the labelling, but the real origin of the produce is not always easy to identify, experts said.
The case came to court after an Israeli winery in a settlement near Jerusalem contested France’s application of a previous court ruling on the labelling.
That ruling backed the use of origin tags but did not make them legally binding.
The winery and Israel’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the ruling.
"We welcome the decision of the European Court of Justice and call upon all European countries to implement what is a legal and political obligation," Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said on Tuesday.
"Our demand is not only for the correct labelling reflecting the certificate of origin of products coming from illegal colonial settlements, but for the banning of those products from international markets."
