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Itongadol.- Israeli officials fired back at the call by 16 European foreign minister to mark products made in the West Bank\’s settlements, evoking a Holocaust-era comparisons and claiming the EU was blaming Israel for the stalemate in peace talks.
"They can put a yellow patch on products from Judea and Samaria and the Golan," Foreign Minister Lieberman said defiantly Friday to Israel Radio.
A top foreign ministry official echoed the claim, saying "It seems some European nations now want to put a yellow patch on Israeli products. We know that what begins as marking Israeli products, quickly deteriorates into an overall boycott of Israeli goods."
The news of the letter, signed by 16 out 28 EU foreign ministers, broke Thursday and gained almost across the board criticism from Israeli politicians.
In the letter, the ministers called on the EU\’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to advance a proposal to mark products made in West Bank settlements and assure "correct and coherent implementation of EU labeling legislation."
The push by Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders was supported by the top diplomats of the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Croatia, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, and Austria.
Israel\’s Energy Minister Silvan Shalom slammed the move as counter-productive, saying they do little to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. According to him, "such moves began a decade ago and have achieved little."
Shalom further told Israeli Radio that the move placed on the onus of the stalemate in peace talks on Israel and not the Palestinians.
The center-left also had little praise for the initiative, but saying it was a response to the current government\’s reluctance to either move forward with the two-state solution or present an alternative.
"The Europeans have had enough with Israel jumping through hoops just not to implement the two state solution without outline an alternative policy, the Zionist Union\’s MK Nahman Shai said.