Norway mandates labels on products from occupied West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem

Israel on Saturday condemned a decision by Norway to follow the European Union in adopting a labelling scheme to identify products from Israeli settlements in areas occupied by Israel.

A statement from Israel's foreign ministry said Norway's new position "will adversely affect bilateral relations between Israel and Norway, as well as Norway's relevance to promoting relations between Israel and the Palestinians".

The ministry was referring to Norway's longstanding role as a mediator between Israel and Palestine.

Norway's social democrat government announced its new policy in a statement released on Friday, saying it was not enough to label products coming from the occupied territories as Israeli.

The measure mainly concerns imports of wine, olive oil, fruits and vegetables, and will apply to products from the occupied West Bank "including East Jerusalem" and occupied areas of the Golan heights, Oslo said.

Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed in an interview with Norwegian news agency NTB that this in no way constituted a boycott of Israel.

"Norway has good relations with Israel," she added. "That must continue."

The European Commission recommended its member states follow this practice in 2015, a decision confirmed by the EU's European Court of Justice in 2019.

Norway said that the principle behind its decision, as set out in the 2019 ruling, is that consumers should not be deceived by misleading labelling on the origin of the products.

During the Trump administration, the United States announced that goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories could be labelled Israeli.

The settlements in the occupied territories are illegal under international law, but have continued under successive Israeli governments since 1967.