To criticize Israel is to be anti-Semitic. This tired and absurd old trick is laughable. It effectively means that Israel can do no wrong. Even Jews who decry Zionist bigotry are labelled “anti-Semites”. There is seemingly no end to this rubbish.
Yet it has once again been trotted out by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu. This time the anti-Semites are the Europeans. This accusation of racial prejudice arises because the European Commission has issued new guidelines which stipulate that products made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be branded “Made In Israel”.
There is a very simple reason for this. Under international law and according to long-standing UN resolutions, the Palestinian territory and the Golan Heights of Syria which were occupied by Israel troops in 1967 cannot be annexed, any more than Russia can claim to have wrested Crimea from Ukraine.
Therefore, the settlers in the illegal fortified settlements who have been manufacturing and producing everything from cosmetics to fruit and vegetables can no longer label their output “made in Israel”. It will have to show that it was made in the West Bank. Consumers in Europe will, therefore, have a choice. Do they wish to buy this product and so contribute to sustaining Israel settlers and their violent seizure of Palestinian land and resources, not the least of them water? Or do they wish to register their disgust at Zionist expansion, at what Netanyahu calls the “facts on the ground”? It is as simple as that.
It can be certain that Israel will immediately start to try and circumvent the measure. It is not simply that one tomato looks very much like another. If worse comes to worst, foodstuffs produced in the Occupied Territories could simply be sold to Israeli consumers, freeing up other genuinely Israeli produce for export. Yet with a few easily-traced exceptions, such as cosmetics, it can be confidently expected that the government will insist that the new EU regulations be ignored.
Indeed Netanyahu may seek a confrontation, challenging Brussels to fine Israeli companies for breaking the rules. This will reinforce the fiction that Israel is oppressed by evil outside forces. It is not hard to see that Americans will be tempted to believe this lie. After all, was it not the European Nazi Germans that gave the world the Holocaust and the European Serbs who butchered Muslims at Srebrenica?
The Israeli leader is already calling the EU anti-Semitic. In a world where Political Correctness has become a substitution for independent thought and common sense, the accusation has unfortunate and pathetic resonance. Yet of, course, Netanyahu’s attempt to demonize the Europeans as Jew-hating bigots is designed to shift the attention of the international community from the real issue, which is the Israeli occupation and exploitation of someone else’s country. This is both legally and morally wrong.
Netanyahu has warned that the new EU regulations will throw Palestinians out of the jobs that they have in factories in the illegal settlements, and so damage the Palestinian economy. As if the Zionist settlers have not already done enough to pauperize their subject people. And as if Netanyahu cares about the Palestinians.
With a straight face, Netanyahu has said that the EU should “be ashamed of itself” for the new labeling policy. However, in reality, the shame rests entirely with Netanyahu.
