Leo van Doesburg, Director for European Affairs at the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM), spoke to Arutz Sheva at the annual Israel Allies Foundation Chairman’s Conference taking place at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Jerusalem.
The conference brought to Israel a delegation of 25 ministers and parliamentarians from around the world who made a special visit to Samaria as part of the conference.
“It’s good to see the different projects that give us arguments to help and promote Israel even better,” said van Doesburg.
“We do our best,” he replied when asked if the EU can be convinced that labelling products from “settlements” is wrong.
He acknowledged that the majority of the European Parliament is not on his side, but stressed the importance of continuously showing the truth.
“For example, next week we will organize a very big conference in the European Parliament about the trade relations between the EU and Israel, where all these issues concerning labeling and BDS will be discussed. The head of the delegation from Israel from the European Parliament will be there, the vice chair, and many other members of the European Parliament. There were just elections in the European Parliament, so it is now the time to start to make people aware. That’s why we right away are starting with a conference there, in order to talk about the Israel-EU relationship and see how we can fight against this discriminatory legislation on labeling,” said van Doesburg.
“I think it is very important that people know the truth. People all the time are repeating what most of the leftist liberal sites are saying about this without investigating what is actually going on. So it’s important to tell the truth: That labelling is discriminatory, that it does not have a place in the legislation, and that it will place many people who work in this area at a disadvantage.”