Court says EU states must label Israeli settlement products

The European Union's top court ruled Tuesday that EU countries must oblige retailers to identify products made in Israeli settlements with special labels, in a ruling likely to spark anger in Israel.

The European Court of Justice said in a statement that "foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin."
The Luxembourg-based court said that when products come from an Israeli settlement, their labeling must provide an "indication of that provenance."
The ECJ underlined 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 that any failure to identify the point of origin of produce meant that "consumers have no way of knowing, in the absence of any information capable of enlightening them in that respect, that a foodstuff comes from a locality or a set of localities constituting a settlement established in one of those territories in breach of the rules of international humanitarian law."