The Biden administration is drawing up plans to require labeling of products originating from West Bank settlements, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing U.S. officials.
It is still unclear if and when such an initiative would take effect as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to turn the screws on Israel following reports of a supposed increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The report also highlighted Washington's frustration with how Israel is conducting the war in the Gaza Strip.
Products from settlements were prohibited from being labeled in the U.S. as "Made in Israel" until former President Donald Trump reversed the decision, allowing products from the Israeli-administered Area C to be tagged as such.
Against the backdrop of the U.S. decision, the newspaper cited Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's March 22 announcement that the Civil Administration declared 2,000 acres in the Jordan Valley as state land, during U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Israel. Two days later, the U.S. abstained from vetoing a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages. American sources stated the U.S. did not want to announce product labeling alongside this unprecedented move.
The European Union had already approved regulations in 2019 requiring products from settlements to be labeled as originating in "occupied territory," prohibiting them from being marked as products of Israel itself.