The twin towers of the European Court of Justice
The twin towers of the European Court of JusticeiStock

The European Court of Justice will rule tomorrow on whether labeling products from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights is legal.

The precedent-setting ruling could force all EU member states to label products originating in Jewish 'settlements' and to ban the products from having labels saying 'made in Israel.'

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is very concerned about the ruling and believes that the court, the most important legal institution in Europe, will rule in favor of labeling the products. Israel has sent messages to European countries warning that relations with Israel would be harmed if the court rules against Israel, Channel 13 News correspondent Barak Ravid reported.

The case began in 2015 when the EU published guidelines for marking products from 'settlements' in European markets. Some European countries have implemented the guidelines and some have ignored them.

In 2016, the Psagot winery in Binyamin sued in a French court against the labeling of its wines. The Paris-based Council of State referred the case to the European Court of Justice.

In June, Court of Justice Advocate General Gerard Hogan issued an “the absence of the indication of the country of origin or place of provenance of a product originating in a territory occupied by Israel and, in any event, a settlement colony, might mislead the consumer as to the true country of origin or place of provenance of the food.”

According to Hogan, the labeling on the products must reflect the “geographical name of this territory and the indication that the product comes from an Israeli settlement if that is the case.”