Hawzah News Agency - The European Union's top court has issued a landmark ruling, ordering EU states to label food products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement announcing its decision on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said EU countries must oblige retailers to identify products made in settlements with special labels to avoid misleading consumers.

"Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by ... Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin, accompanied, where those foodstuffs come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, by the indication of that provenance," the Luxembourg-based court said.

Simply indicating that goods originate in Israel, when in fact they came from the occupied lands, could mislead consumers about the fact that the regime "is present in the territories concerned as an occupying power and not as a sovereign entity," it added.

The court also noted that the EU's 2011 regulations on labeling the origin of goods are intended to allow consumers to make "informed choices, with regard not only to health, economic, environmental and social considerations, but also to ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law."

The ECJ further underlined that Israeli settlements "give concrete expression to a policy of population transfer ..., in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law."