EU envoy: Product labeling does not mean boycott against Israel
EU's Ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, insisted on Wednesday that the decision to label Israeli products from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights does not mean Europe is boycotting Israel, or the settlements.
"I've been shocked to hear claims of anti-Semitism and historical comparisons or analogies to the persecution of Jews in Germany in the 30s and 40s," Faaborg-Andersen said at the Jerusalem Post's Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem.
"In my mind this is a distortion of history and belittlement of the crimes of the Nazis, and the memory of their victims," he added.
He mentioned that Israel has not annexed the West Bank, making it an official part of the state, and said the comparison to Europe's treatment of other conflicts in the world is "simply not relevant because the situations are different."
