Boycott of West Bank Products Is Legal: Expert
European governments are fully within their legal rights to boycott products made by Jews in the West Bank, a British legal expert has concluded.
The 60-page opinion by James Crawford, a professor of international law at Cambridge University in Britain, has been shown to senior officials of EU member states in the past few months, according to the U.K. Independent, which also saw the opinion.
“(T)here do not appear to be any European Commission laws which could be breached by a member state taking the decision to ban the import of settlement produce on public policy grounds,” Crawford reportedly states in his opinion.
The opinion comes as some European Union states are considering measures ranging from relabeling West Bank goods to reflect that they were made in settlements to an outright ban on their import.
The opinion will be published this week by the Trades Union Congress, according to the Independent. The Congress has been working to approve a ban on the purchase of goods produced in the settlements, though it does not support a boycott of Israel as a whole
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30