Bipartisan US Representatives introduced a resolution on Thursday, decrying the EU decision to label Jewish products from Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan heights.
House Resolution 567, which sharply condemns the EU move, was introduced by Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY), Peter Roskam (R-IL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Ed Royce (R-CA).
"New European Commission guidelines to single out Israeli products manufactured in the West Bank (Judea-Samaria - ed.) and other areas only encourage and prompt consumers to boycott all Israeli goods," said the Representatives in a joint statement.
"This is counterproductive to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, harmful to U.S. national security interests, and contributes to the deeply misguided anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Boycotts chip away at economic integration, which negatively affects Israelis and Palestinians alike.
"The establishment of the European Economic Community was predicated on the notion that peace and security are achieved through trade, economic cooperation, and job creation - not boycotts and isolation. The same is true for Israelis and Palestinians."
The Representatives called on the EU to change it's behavior, saying, "as Israel’s largest trading partner, the European Union should play a constructive role to help bring the parties back to the negotiating table and resolve their differences, not try to extract one-sided concessions and feed into politically-motivated acts to boycott Israel."
"This resolution expresses our opposition to the EU labeling decision and all other boycott, divestment, and sanctions efforts directed against Israel or Israeli-controlled territory.”
Just last Thursday the EU's double-standard in the labeling move was put on display as a top court struck down a trade deal with Morocco in the occupied Western Sahara, and the EU on Monday responded by petitioning the ruling. The move shows the discriminatory nature of the labeling only against Israel.
Legal experts revealed the ruling undermines the EU's claims that its labeling of Israel and taking other punitive actions are due to a principle of "non-recognition," since the court decision shows that it can and does do business with "occupiers."