Congress Must Not Allow Israeli Settlement Products to Be Falsely Labeled as ‘Made in Israel’

IMEU Policy Project Memo #12

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote tomorrow, Wednesday, September 18, on H.R.5179, a bill which advances Israel’s illegal annexation of the militarily occupied Palestinian West Bank.

The bill seeks to permanently codify into law a Trump administration Customs and Border Protection (CPB) notice that goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and imported to the US MUST be marked as being made in Israel.

Mandating that goods produced in Israeli settlements must be marked as being made in Israel not only is patently untrue. False country of origin labeling also deprives Americans consumers of the ability to make informed choices about whether or not they wish to purchase goods made in illegal Israeli settlements. Purchasing goods produced in Israeli settlements sustains them, and many Americans do not want their purchases to entrench Israel’s illegal theft of Palestinian land. 

In addition, by falsely claiming that Israeli settlements are in Israel, Congress, by enacting this bill, would be complicit in the Netanyahu government’s drive to illegally annex Palestinian land in the West Bank. By transferring some responsibility for administering the Palestinian West Bank from military to civilian authorities, some legal experts have argued that Israel already has taken steps to de facto annex the West Bank. 

H.R.5179 would advance this Israeli annexation by erasing any distinction between Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank. It is not an exaggeration to argue that this bill, if enacted into law, would constitute Congressional support for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. International law prohibits the annexation of territory through the use of force.

The Trump administration’s CPB notice overturned an Obama administration CPB guidance reiterating existing US policy that goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements must be marked as being made in the West Bank. This Obama administration CPB guidance reinforced a Clinton administration Customs Service notice of policy to this effect. 

The Trump administration’s CPB notice was a radical reversal of a 25-year bipartisan consensus of Democratic and Republican administrations alike that goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements cannot be falsely labeled as being made in Israel. 

Congressional action to codify into law the Trump administration’s CPB notice would make this ill-conceived policy reversal permanent and signal US support for Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestinian land.