Israel Seeks To Put Ties With Europe ‘Back on Track’
Israel and the European Union have agreed to put relations “back on track,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu and top European Union official Federica Mogherini in a weekend conversation discussed tension between Israel and the EU.
European-Israeli relations have deteriorated since November, when the EU adopted long-discussed guidelines to label products made in West Bank Jewish settlements and on the Golan Heights. The EU has also decided that its agreements with Israel do not apply to the West Bank, Golan Heights or eastern Jerusalem.
In response to the labeling decision, Israel froze all EU involvement in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Netanyahu said on Sunday of the conversation with Mogherini that: “I heard from her that the EU is opposed to any boycott of Israel, and about their action regarding product labeling, she defined it as non-binding and said that it does not reflect their position regarding the final borders of the State of Israel, which can be determined – this is what she said – only in direct negotiations between the sides.”
Netanyahu also said: “Israel, as a representative of democratic values, is entitled to receive support from Europe and not just criticism, and I think that this step is welcome. Of course, this is not to say that there will not be friction. There are things that we do not agree on.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the country’s relations with the European Union “close and friendly” again following the conversation.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO