Posted on 07/30/21
| News Source: Arutz-7
Republican senators have put forward a bill that would prohibit the Biden administration from issuing new product labelling guidelines that would target goods made in Judea and Samaria in line with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“As the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement continues with its destructive anti-Israel campaign, we must ensure products made in Israel aren’t the prime targets of economic warfare,” said Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) who joined Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Boozman (R-AR), Rick Scott (R-FL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in introducing the bill.
The Anti-BDS Labeling Act would prohibit the White House from reversing a Trump administration policy that rejected guidelines dating back to the Clinton-era in 1995 that required “Made in West Bank” country-of-origin (COO) labelling for Israeli products made in Judea and Samaria.
“Left-wing activists abuse county-of-origin labels in order to stigmatize products made in Israel,” Cotton said. “Our bill will defend the integrity of the Jewish State by ensuring that Israeli products may proudly bear the label ‘Made in Israel.’”
Remarking that the BDS campaign is “driven by anti-Semitic hate,” Cruz said he was proud to join his colleagues in putting forward the legislation that would block the Biden administration “from reversing current guidelines that allow the State of Israel to exercise their sovereignty when marking goods made in their own country.”
Boozman said that the legislation would ensure that support for Israel “remains steadfast and rejects anti-Semitic movements attempting to undermine it.”
“As our most strategic and important ally in the Middle East, Israel should be assured that the US government will not reverse course and take part in the campaign to delegitimize its authority and punish its economy,” he said.
Scott said that the legislation was part of their effort to combat the “disgusting rise of anti-Semitism” that continues to “permeate our country and the halls of Congress.”
“I’m proud to join this effort and continue my strong support of our great ally Israel. I will always stand with our Jewish community and fight the BDS movement and anti-Semitism wherever it is found,” he added.
Hagerty called product labelling laws targeting Israel “discriminatory economic warfare.”
“Last year, President Trump dealt a serious blow to the BDS movement when he ended the US government’s discriminatory treatment of Israeli goods produced in Judea and Samaria, and required these imported goods to be labeled as ‘Made in Israel,’” he said.
The legislation is aimed at countering efforts by the BDS movement and its supporters to pressure the Biden administration to reverse course on the Trump-era product labelling rules.
Blackburn noted that targeting products from Judea and Samaria with COO labelling is a “double standard that is not applied to other sovereign nations involved in territorial disputes.”
“Tennesseans are proud to stand with Israel. We must not allow the Biden Administration to roll back existing policy and allow the singling out and discrimination against products made in Israel,” he said.