Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ordered the suspension of political contacts with the EU institutions in Brussels regarding the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, in response to the new guidelines on labeling Jewish products from east of the “green line” issued by the European Commission. However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said the talks on peace with EU Member States—Germany, Britain and France—will continue outside the union framework.
Nachshon explained that Netanyahu wants the Ministry to re-evaluated how much involvement Israel should allow the EU’s various agencies concerning issues related to the peace process. As soon as they complete their reassessment, they will decide whether and how to let the EU in on the process.
According to Ha’aretz, on the day the EU published its new rules on tagging Jewish products from judea and Samaria, Netanyahu summoned the EU ambassador to Israel Lars Andersen Faborg for a reprimand, and informed him that Israel canceled several political consultation meetings that were planned for the coming weeks.
The only concrete area that stands to suffer immediately from the Netanyahu move is the dialogue with the EU over economic development in Area C, Ha’aretz reported. There was one, initial meeting on this issue in September and so far no other followed. And so, just as it had been predicted, the Palestinians are already suffering from the EU product labeling.