The European Union approved new guidelines Wednesday calling for labels identifying goods made in Israeli settlements in a move swiftly condemned by Israel.
The EU says the rules are a technical measure that will expand to its entire 28-nation bloc labelling similar to what is already being done by members Britain, Belgium and Denmark.
Labelling was first proposed in 2012 for goods coming out of the areas that Israeli seized in the 1967 Six Day War and that the EU does not recognize as Israeli territory.
Israel's foreign ministry called the EU's decision an "exceptional and discriminatory step."
Israeli officials have called the regulations "disguised anti-Semitism" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in September they were reminiscent of labels placed on Jewish products during the Nazi era.
David Walzer, the Israeli ambassador to the EU, said last month the guidelines single out Israel and send a message that it should be "blamed and punished" for the stagnation in the peace process with the Palestinians.