Israel Suspends Diplomatic Contact With Some EU Bloc Bodies
November 29 2015 - 8:40PM
Dow Jones News
TEL AVIV—Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday
ordered the country's foreign ministry to suspend diplomatic
contact with European Union bodies engaged in Israeli-Palestinian
peace efforts, responding to the bloc's decision to label products
made in the occupied territories.
Mr. Netanyahu, who also acts as foreign minister, told the
ministry to reassess the involvement of EU bodies "in everything
that is connected to the diplomatic process."
"Until completion of the reassessment, the Prime Minister has
ordered a suspension of diplomatic contacts with the EU and its
representative in this matter," the foreign ministry said in a
statement.
The move to suspend diplomatic relations on issues related to
the peace process wouldn't affect Israel's relations with
individual countries in the European Union, the Israeli foreign
ministry added in its statement.
The office of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had no
comment on the matter at this time.
Earlier this month, the EU's executive laid out guidelines for
labeling products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West
Bank. Israel's foreign ministry summoned the EU ambassador for a
meeting in response to the long-expected move.
Israel's foreign ministry also had warned that labeling products
would lead to Israeli questions about an EU role in future peace
negotiations, although all sides concede peace negotiations aren't
imminent.
Ms. Mogherini has made peace talks between the Israelis and
Palestinians a diplomatic priority since assuming her post in
November last year. Shortly after taking the role, she made her
first official trip outside of Europe to visit Mr. Netanyahu and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
She also has sought to rejuvenate the Middle East Quartet group,
which brings together the EU, the U.S., Russia and the United
Nations, and reached out to Arab states such as Jordan, Egypt and
Saudi Arabia to build momentum for peace negotiations.
"It is now up to the Israeli and the Palestinian leadership to
demonstrate with acts that their commitment to the two-state
solution is real and not just fake, not just a slogan," Ms.
Mogherini told EU lawmakers last month in Strasbourg.
It isn't clear if the EU's role in the quartet would be affected
by the Israeli decision. The Israeli foreign ministry declined to
comment further on its statement.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, brokered by
the U.S., fell apart last year as the two sides failed to agree on
a key issues. Palestinian officials have since called for
multilateral negotiations, similar to those on a nuclear deal
between Iran and world powers and which included the EU. Israeli
officials have said Mr. Netanyahu is willing to sit down with Mr.
Abbas for negotiations.
No peace talks are currently planned, however, and the White
House has said a peace deal won't happen before President Obama
leaves office in early 2017 and resumption of talks are also
unlikely.
Western diplomats, including from the EU, have lobbied for
smaller measures that might bring the Israelis and Palestinians to
the table for talks. These include a cessation of settlement
building and allowing the Palestinian Authority more control in
parts of the West Bank.
But a two-month spate of violence in the West Bank and Israel
has overshadowed any talk of a deal. U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry last week visited Jerusalem and Ramallah to talk to both
sides about taking steps to end the current tension and return to
talks.
The guidance on settlement-produced products obliges European
importers to label agricultural and some industrial products for
sale in the 28-nation bloc. The plan was delayed by three years as
the U.S. and Israel pressured the EU to reject the plan.
EU diplomats have said the guidelines are unlikely to lead to
further measures against Israel's settlement expansion in the
Palestinian territories, which the bloc deems illegal.
A senior EU official previously acknowledged that the labeling
decision touched on an emotional issue for Israel. But the official
didn't expect the move to have a lasting impact on ties.
Laurence Norman contributed to this article.
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2015 20:25 ET (01:25 GMT)
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