Words Matter

The European Union Court of Justice ruled recently that produce and products from Jewish-owned businesses and farms located within the West Bank must be labeled “Settlement Products.” This ruling stemmed from a French law requiring such labeling. The issue of Jewish Israelis living east of the “Green Line” triggers hostile reactions around the world. The prevailing view is that these Israelis are settlers living in occupied territories.

Is this the correct view, or is it the influence of propaganda?

Words matter. There’s a big difference between the words “Occupied” and “Disputed” when talking about territory. “Disputed” means the details of land ownership still need to be worked out. “Occupied” implies an illegal taking of the land. At the heart of this ruling is the declaration that several hundred thousand Jewish residents are “settlers” who “occupy” Palestinian land.

Arab Muslim businessmen in neighboring villages can label their products anything they want: “Made in Palestine,” “Made in Israel,” or even “Made on the Moon.” Jewish-owned businesses operating under Israeli laws, who ship their products through Israeli ports, may no longer label their products according to the same choices afforded their Muslim counterparts.

What really happened? Jordan took the land in question in war and illegally occupied it for 19 years. After Israel won it back, it had to deal with the issue of the inhabitants. The first issue was to find a willing partner to negotiate. The Oslo Accords recognized the PLO as this partner.

Israel and the PLA signed an agreement to divide the land that was supposed to be Israel’s in the first place. Israel gave the PLO control of land containing 95% of the Muslim population, whereas Israel took control over mostly uninhabited places that were of strategic significance to avoid yet another war.

After 25 years, there have been no attacks from the east, but nor has there been a formal agreement recognizing each party’s sovereignty. Without a formal agreement, all the territory in the West Bank remains “disputed,” both Palestinian-controlled and Israeli-controlled. This uncertainty makes all the people -- Muslims and Jews -- “settlers” in an indeterminate land.

Words matter. The EU claims it does not support the BDS movement, because it is not calling for a boycott of Jewish products; only the labeling of Jewish products so consumers can boycott them if they so choose. Not surprisingly, there are plenty of people who see a parallel between labeling Jewish products and painting Jewish stars on store windows. The EU is not calling for painting yellow stars on Jewish goods. They are not doing that. However, labeling is the gateway drug for boycotts. You can’t boycott if you do not know what to boycott. So, thanks for that, EU.

Words Matter. Would you call an Arab business operating in the city of Hebron “Occupiers”? Why or why not? Hebron is one of the holiest cities in Judaism. The Bible tells the story of how Abraham, the father of all religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- purchased land there to bury his wife and family. He didn’t take it, he paid the asking price.

Since then, there has always been a Jewish presence in that city, and it was included in the Jewish part of the Palestinian Mandate. But then the Arabs slaughtered the Jewish community in 1929. Then the Jordanians came in 1948 and expelled the remaining Jews.

So how is it that the EU does not label the Muslims living there as “occupiers”? What does the word mean, if this is not the textbook definition? Jews living on land they won back from Jordan, on the ground they did not turn over to the Palestinian Authority, is their land. And if there will ever be a partner interested in living together in peace, there won’t even be a dispute over this area.

Did you just say that Zionism is the root of the problem? Is that it? Don’t you see how Words Matter? Zionism means nothing more than the national aspiration of the Jewish people after the Romans destroyed their country and expelled the survivors into an exodus that exposed them to two thousand years of persecution, mostly at the hand of Europeans. Hiding behind your hatred of Zionism as your defense means you deny Jews what you give to Spaniards, to Portuguese, and to the French. You deny Jews their affinity for their homeland, whereas Italians can long for Italy, the Chinese can dream of China, the Pakistanis can talk about their lives back in Pakistan. Are Italians, Chinese, and Pakistani racists because they still love their homelands? You would never suggest such nonsense. The French love France, and the Swedes love Sweden. So why can’t the Jews love Israel without the UN, and anyone else, calling them racists? That is all that Zionism means.

Thankfully, finally, the French parliament has got it right, declaring that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Europe has seen enough antisemitism to last a thousand years. Now it is time for all the EU countries to adopt this same measure and stop twisting the meaning of words.

Over 100 US Democratic Congressmen don’t understand the poison in their words when they called Jews “Settlers.” They allow the hatred for their President to overwhelm their judgment. They are blind to history.

If the EU means to help Palestinian Arabs rather than Arab hate groups, boycotts are the wrong way to go about this. The EU decision punishes Arab workers who want nothing more than to earn a decent living under better working conditions. The SodaStream factory employed 500 Palestinian Arabs before BDS targeted it for a boycott. Under this current EU rule, SodaStream bottles from that same factory would wear the virtual yellow star of Jewishness, except BDS already closed the West Bank factory. The new plant inside Israel increased its workforce to 1500. Had this happened near its original location, in the recognized Jewish administered zone on the West Bank, the income from these workers would have lifted their communities; now, that income is lost.

SodaStream was just one factory giving opportunities to Arab workers. How many more lives does the EU and Democratic Congressmen wish to crush in this region?

Is there a moral principle behind any of this? If the EU wants to champion human rights, then when will it label products from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the killer of its own people, the largest exporter of terror, and the cruelest violator of women's rights in the world? Oh, that’s right. The UN Economic and Social Council voted overwhelmingly to condemn, not Iran, but Israel for violating women’s rights. Where was Europe when this nonsense was passed? Britain and Germany hid in the back and abstained, while France and Denmark voted for it. What do women’s rights even mean if you condemn Israel but pass on Iran? Don’t Words Matter anymore?.

Will the EU insist on labels on clothing produced by Palestinian workers trapped and exploited in UNRWA refugee camps inside Jordan? Will goods from Turkey bear labels now that it has launched a genocidal attack against the Kurdish people and unleashed ISIS back into the world? Why won’t Europe say something about the exploited children working in mines in Africa?

Of course not. These countries have no Jews.

The EU gave in to the demands of people who don’t care about Palestinian people. They care only to crush the one tiny Jewish state that occupies almost an entire one percent of the land in the Middle East and North Africa. Do you think that by condemning Israel, you will bring yourselves peace? All you will show is that you lack the foundation to know right from wrong, which is why, at least in Europe, Words No Longer Matter.