Pro-Israel groups split over Obama's West Bank labeling requirements
New guidance from the US Customs agency warns that it will be cracking down on settlement goods that say "Made in Israel."
Pro-Israel groups are split over the Obama administration's crackdown on mislabeled goods from the West Bank, potentially complicating any pushback from Congress.
The US Customs agency warned importers last week that they can expect to be fined if they mark settlement goods as "Made in Israel," in keeping with US policy for the past two decades. While some critics on the right denounced the guidance as a concerted effort with the European Union to put pressure on Israel over its settlement construction, the main pro-Israel lobby said it had no issue with the policy because it does not distinguish between Jewish and Palestinian products but rather between Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
"This long standing Customs policy, in contrast to the actions of the European Union, was not intended to stigmatize Israeli products but to merely facilitate duty free access to the U.S. market for Palestinian goods,” Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, told The Forward. “It does not distinguish among manufacturers in the territories.”
Others disagree.
