Israel furious as France to label settlement goods

Israel has accused France of aiding a boycott of the Jewish state, after Paris announced new guidelines for labelling goods from settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
France published the guidelines late yesterday on enforcing European Union regulations on labelling goods from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied Palestinian land, as well as the Golan Heights which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.
"Under international law the Golan Heights and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are not part of Israel," it said.
As such, it said labelling goods as just from the West Bank or Golan Heights without more details was "not acceptable."

Goods must be labelled as coming from an "Israeli settlement" when that is the case, to avoid "the risk of misleading the consumer," it added.
It comes a year after the European Union backed the labelling of products from Israeli settlements.
"(Israel) regrets that France, which actually has a law against boycotts, is advancing measures that can be interpreted as encouraging radical elements and the movement to boycott Israel," an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.
It accused France of a "double standard" by focusing on Israel and "ignoring the other 200 territorial disputes around the world.