Italian Member of the European Parliament Fiorello Provera said this week he intends to oppose motions in the EU to label products coming from the settlements.
"I don’t support restrictions in this area (the settlements) because they can harm factories where Israeli and Palestinian employees work together, have similar salaries, make the same sacrifices and have the same possibilities for attaining a good standard of living in dignity," he was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post during a visit to Israel.
"Harming these factories’ability to function would damage coexistence," he added.
Provera, who is also Vice-Chairman of the important foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament, visited the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, as guest of the Samaria’s Regional Council.
He met with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett.
He also visited the Ariel University of Samaria and the Barkan Industrial Park where 3,000 Jews and 3,000 Arabs work together.
"Coexistence on the ground between Israelis and Palestinians is a good example of practical policy. I’m in favor of this bottom-up coexitence," he added.
"Most European Parliament members do not know what's happening in Israel. Since I've been exposed to the settlement movement in Samaria, I feel a responsibility to open up my fellow European Parliament members to the reality here," he was also quoted as saying.
Provera said the best way to fight settlement product labeling in the EU is to make sure members of the European Parliament are informed.
"Information is crucial for us to make up our minds and have an opinion," he said.
"Without real information, we cannot decide what is right and wrong."
The European Union is currently working on legal guidelines for any member states that might choose to clearly label products produced in West Bank settlements.
Last month, 13 EU Foreign Ministers sent a letter to EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is also Vice-President of the EU Commission, in which they applauded the labeling.
“We warmly welcome your commitment to work with fellow Commissioners to prepare EU-wide guidelines on the labeling of settlement products,” the letter said.
“This is an important step to ensure correct and coherent implementation of EU consumer protection and labeling legislation which is in fulfillment of our previous commitments and is fully consistent with long standing EU policy in relation to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories,” the letter continued.
“Our consumers have the right to an informed choice. This initiative will help support our retailers to provide this. The correct labeling of products is necessary to ensure our consumers are not being misled by false information.”
The foreign ministers continued, “If European consumers have confidence that they know the origin of goods they are purchasing, both Green Line Israeli producers and Palestinian producers will benefit.”
Among the countries that signed the letter were Britain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.
Israel views labeling of West Bank products as a “discriminatory measures” and therefore “should not be adopted.”
“The EU is applying this kind of labeling only to Israeli West Bank settlements and not to any other areas in which there is a border dispute, “ Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
“Since it singles out Israel and Israel only for labeling, obviously consumer protection arguments do not hold water,” he said.
Israel believes that its citizens have a right to live over the pre-1967 line and that attempts to curtail those rights are part of an initiative to set the borders of a two-state solution outside the framework of direct negotiations.