The European Union's moves to label Jewish-made produce from Judea and Samaria is illegal under international trade law, Dutch European Union MP Bastian (Bas) Belder warned Tuesday.
The European Conservatives and Reformists Group MEP - who is Vice-Chair of the Delegation for Relations with Israel and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs - added that the Israeli government should be taking a tougher stance against the moves to label Israeli produce in a bid to encourage boycotts.
"What the European Union is doing... is totally against the rules of international state law," he said.
"Instead of going with diplomacy and soft words... to Brussels," Israel should be making more of this fact and threatening the EU with legal action if it goes ahead with the move.
"International law is not on the side of the EU," he emphasized, while noting such a move would also undermine the EU's own stated goal of forging peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
"Is that the way to normalize Israeli-Palestinian relations? Totally not."
Belder is currently in Israel leading a delegation of international parliamentarians, attending the Israel Allies Foundation annual Jerusalem Chairman’s Conference. Sponsored by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), the conference will be attended by 22 parliamentarians from 18 countries worldwide, as well as a number of distinguished guests from Israel.
He also said that while he was "skeptical" and concerned about the nuclear deal with Iran, Israel needed to focus on the day after and accept that it was a "done deal."
That said, Iran should not be let off the hook, and international experts should be quick to call the regime out if it once again attempts to fool inspectors.
"It is now up to the international community to... inspect what the Iranian regime are doing - are they cheating again, hiding and so on? That's important."
Nevertheless, "the flaws in the deal are quite obvious," he noted.