A team of more than 400 lawyers from the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit human and civil-rights litigation and advocacy group, have partnered with nearly 1,000 legislators working for the Israel Allies Foundation to fight the a pro-BDS ruling by the European Court of Justice that requires E.U. countries to identify products made in Israeli settlements on their labels.
In November, the European Union’s top court ruled that Israeli goods produced over the pre-1967 line—meaning products from eastern Jerusalem, Golan Heights and West Bank settlements—must be marked as settlement products in all 28 E.U. member states.
Israel opposes the labeling and holds that it supports the BDS movement, providing a tool to boycott the Jewish state.
Israel Allies Foundation president Josh Reinstein said “during these times of significant hostility towards Israel stemming from the European Union, it is essential that we unite our allies in the parliaments across Europe, encouraging them to work as a powerful bloc against the labeling of Jewish goods. Our new partnership with the Lawfare Project will allow us to effect real policy change against the anti-Semitic ruling of the European Court of Justice.”
“The European court’s decision was discriminatory on its face. It singled out Jews and opened a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences for global trade,” said the Lawfare Project’s executive director Brooke Goldstein. “Allies of Israel and the Jewish people must stand together now more than ever. Jews will not sit quietly while our rights and dignity are stripped from us.”
Israel Allies Caucuses in the European Union and the United Kingdom have already spoken out against the labeling laws, and the Netherlands passed a resolution against them, according to The Jerusalem Post.
