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Is it from Israel or Palestine? EU labeling guidelines spur more controversy

Congress — and Israel — say new European labeling guidelines are an anti-Semitic ploy; the EU says they’re in line with 15 years of trade law.
Palestinians work at a textile factory in the Industrial Park of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Barkan, southwest of Nablus November 8, 2015. Few issues have caused more friction between Israel and the European Union than EU plans to impose labeling on goods produced in Jewish settlements on occupied land. And if Israel is right about the timing, the tensions could get worse. Picture taken November 8, 2015. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RTS6C3O
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The European Union’s decision to clearly label products from outside Israel’s pre-1967 borders is laying bare a fundamental difference with the United States over how to stop the spread of Jewish settlements.

The Israeli government and its allies in Congress pilloried the new guidelines released Nov. 11 as a discriminatory assault that borders on anti-Semitism. The EU for its part insists that the guidelines are nothing more than a technical clarification to 15 years of trade relations with Israel.

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