European Union Suffers Continuing Backlash Over Racist Labelling Laws

The Czech Parliament’s lower House -- by an overwhelming majority with all parties except the Communists supporting it -- has joined fellow European Union (EU) members – Greece and Hungary – in urging the Czech Government to refuse implementing EU racist and discriminatory labelling laws for Jewish goods produced in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman said that it was:

“absolutely necessary to reject the efforts to discriminate against the only democracy in the Middle East.”

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Another Czech politician Frantisek Laudat argued that the guidelines:

“may evoke awkward reminiscence of marking Jewish people during World War II.”

The Czech Assembly declared the new EU guidelines were:

“motivated by a political positioning versus the State of Israel.”

That political positioning has seen the EU:

1. Claim that settlement by Jews in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem is illegal in international law despite the provisions of article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter specifically authorising and preserving the rights of Jews to live there for the purpose of reconstituting the Jewish National Home.
2. Engage in supporting unauthorised, unapproved and surreptitious Arab building projects in Area “C” in Judea and Samaria where administrative and security control is solely vested in Israel under the Oslo Accords.
3. Ignore that Jews lived in these self-same designated areas for generations before being driven out and ethnically cleansed by six Arab armies in 1948 -- resulting in these areas being illegally annexed and occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967.

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To add to the EU’s current woes and expose the hypocrisy of these labelling regulations – the EU’s second highest judicial body -- the General Court – has determined that the 2012 fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco must be annulled because it also applied to the Western Sahara -- disputed territory under Morocco’s control since 1976. The court cited United Nations resolutions classifying the Western Sahara as occupied -- faulting the EU for pursuing its agreement with Morocco without making any distinction concerning products manufactured in the Western Sahara. Although there are some 200 areas of disputed territory around the world – the EU has seen fit to only require special labelling laws for Jewish goods originating from territories disputed between Jews and Arabs. The EU is considering an appeal. The ire of the US Congress has now also been raised. Representative Nita Lowey (Democrat) sponsored the introduction of the following resolution into the House of Representatives on 16 December – which has now been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee:

“H.Res. 567: Expressing opposition to the European Commission interpretive notice regarding labeling Israeli products and goods manufactured in the West Bank and other areas, as such actions undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

Numerous attempts by Secretary of State John Kerry to bring about a negotiated “two state solution” -- first laid out in the 2003 Bush Roadmap -- have come to nought. These discriminatory labelling regulations must materially affect any future negotiations and the opportunity for the first time in recorded history to create a second Arab State – in addition to Jordan – within the territory covered by the Mandate for Palestine. The EU cannot realistically cancel these regulations – given the anger and resentment such back down would engender in the Arab world. Such blatant anti-Jewish bias ends the EU playing a constructive role in influencing any division of these territories between their Arab and Jewish claimants. The EU instead finds itself being increasingly labelled with a particular odium and tainted reputation because of these malicious regulations. David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network

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