German store puts Golan wines back on sale

JERUSALEM — A German department store said Sunday that it’s putting eight Israeli wines back on the shelves after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused it of boycotting Israeli goods.

KaDeWe said on its Facebook page that the wines had been temporarily removed so the importer could relabel them in accordance with new European Union rules that require products originating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be labeled as such.

The store apologized and said that “as of today the eight Israeli wines will be back in our assortment” and that “in this matter, which was about a European Union recommendation, we acted too quickly and insensitively.”

The EU decision earlier this month to begin labeling settlement products infuriated Israel, which says the move is unfair and discriminatory, and has linked it to a growing international boycott movement.

Netanyahu said earlier Sunday that the German department store’s actions constituted “a boycott in every respect,” adding that KaDeWe was once owned by Jews before the Nazis seized it.

He called on the German government, which opposes the product labeling, to act on the matter.

Critics of the boycott movement say it is anti-Semitic and meant to delegitimize the Jewish state as a whole. Many have compared it to the Nazi boycott prior to and during WWII, when Jewish academics were kicked out of universities and Jewish businesses were boycotted.

“Wines from the Golan Heights Winery are popular and well-loved in Germany, both by the general public and KaDeWe customers in particular,” said Anat Levi, CEO of the Golan Heights Winery. “We were extremely surprised by the decision to remove our wines from the shelves, as reported by the media earlier this week.

“We are happy to see the matter resolved and are grateful to our partners CWD and our loyal German customers for their continued dedication to our wines.”

GHW wines are found at good wine shops and kosher supermarkets in the United States, Canada, Europe and around the world.

From the AP and other sources.