The lower house of the Czech parliament on Thursday called on the Czech government to ignore the recent European Union guidelines which require that products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in the Golan Heights be labeled separately from other Israeli-made goods.
With their resolution, the Czech lawmakers joined Hungary in breaking ranks over the regulations, which we strongly criticized by Israel and many Jewish organizations, including the World Jewish Congress.
In its resolution, the Chamber of Deputies said the guidelines were "motivated by a political positioning versus the State of Israel". The vote reflected a long and strong trade and diplomatic relationship between Israel and the Czech Republic, particularly since its emergence from communist rule in 1989.
Brussels argues that guidelines, published last month, are purely technical, but many regard them as "discriminatory".
The Czech parliamentary resolution was supported by all government and opposition parties except for the Communists.
Culture Minister Daniel Hermann stopped short of saying whether the government would now ignore the EU guidelines, but thanked the lower house for the vote. "It is necessary to reject these attempts that try to discriminate against the only democracy in the Middle East," he said.
The Foreign Ministry in Prague said in a statement that the Czech Republic respected its EU commitments but that it considered Israel as a strategic partner and was keen on developing economic relations with the country.
Tomas Kraus, secretary of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FZO), welcomed the vote. He said that although anti-Semitism on the personal level was very low in most parts of contemporary Europe, especially the Czech Republic, in the international arena Israel was often being treated as the “collective Jew” and singled out. Kraus warned that measures such as the labeling “could be only a first step in a process - and where synagogues are burning, later entire cities will burn.”
Hungary's foreign minister said last month in Jerusalem that Budapest would not label Israeli settlement goods, calling the EU guidelines "irrational."
US Congress members initiate anti-labeling resolution
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US Congressmen on Thursday introduced a resolution that strongly condemns the EU guidelines. Democrats Eliot Engel (the chairman of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians) and Nita Lowey, and Republicans Peter Roskam and Ed Royce initiated the resolution, arguing that the labeling only spurred a general boycott of Israeli goods.
"Not only does it harm the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and damage US national security interests, it also contributes to the anti-Israel BDS movement," the resolution said. "The EU was established on the basic assumption the peace and security are best achieved via commerce, economical alliance and increased employment - not by boycott and isolation. The same assumption applies to Israelis and Palestinians."
