November 28, 2012

(JTA) — European diplomats have recommended imposing visa bans on violent Israeli settlers, as Denmark helped organize a workshop on labeling settlement goods in the European Union.

The Political and Security Committee – a group of E.U. ambassadors dealing with conflict zones – recommended the visa ban at a meeting in Brussels on Nov. 16, according to the news site E.U. Observer. The committee memo says: “Individual E.U. member states could explore possibilities of denying access of known violent settlers to the E.U.”

Meanwhile, DanChurchAid, a Danish Christian nonprofit, has invited European Council officials to a workshop on labeling goods from Israeli settlements. The meeting was was taking place on Wednesday.

The invitation to the closed meeting said participants would discuss “possible practical actions” by E.U. states to “avoid inadvertently supporting the viability and growth of settlements.” The invitation said the initiative is “supported by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that Rafi Schutz, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for Europe, has complained to the Danish foreign ministry and several other E.U .governments that the labeling drive “unfairly singled out and discriminated against Israel.” 

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