Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Michael Oren Gets Into Twitter Feud With French Ambassador Over Settlement Boycott

JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmaker Michael Oren said Israelis should “think twice” before purchasing French products after a French government agency reiterated the requirement that products from the West Bank be marked as from “settlements.”

“France is labeling Israeli products from Judea, Samaria and the Golan. Israelis should think twice before buying French products,” Oren, of the Kulanu party, wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday night.

France is labeling Israeli products from Judea, Samaria, and the Golan. Israelis should think twice before buying French products.

— Michael Oren (@DrMichaelOren) November 27, 2016

Two days earlier, the French Economy Ministry’s General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention said in the government’s Official Journal that it requires vendors to use the word “colonies,” French for “settlements,” to specify goods originating in Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967.

The requirement, according to the ministry, is based on binding regulations adopted last year by the European Commission on labeling settlement goods.

In a tweet responding to Oren, the European Union’s office in Israel said: “This is application of EU consumer information regulations.”

 

@DrMichaelOren This is application of EU consumer information regulations

— EU in Israel (@EUinIsrael) November 27, 2016

On Monday,  the newly appointed French ambassador to Israel, Helene LeGal, tweeted in response: “so you are calling for boycotting French products when in France boycotting Israel is punished by law?”

@DrMichaelOren so you are calling for boycotting French products when in France boycotting Israel is punished by law?

— helene le gal (@HeleneLeGal) November 28, 2016

Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, serves as deputy minister for diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the policy.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.