(JNS.org) Sixteen European Union (EU) foreign ministers signed a letter calling on the EU to label Israeli products made beyond the 1949 armistice line as “Made in the West Bank.” In a letter to EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, the ministers wrote, “European consumers must indeed have confidence in knowing the origin of goods they are purchasing.” The initiative was supported by Belgium, the U.K., France, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Croatia, Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, and Austria. But foreign ministers from Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, and Romania did not sign the letter.

Member of Knesset Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), Israel’s former finance minister, called the letter “an irresponsible initiative with the potential to be disastrous for the Israeli economy.”