Washington, September 21 (RHC)-- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a controversial bill that disregards Palestinians’ rights to their land by designating products from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as originating from Israel.

The proposal, sponsored by Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York, was passed by a vote of 231 to 189 on Thursday.  Titled the “Anti-BDS Labeling Act,” the bill is designed to combat the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, signaling approval for Israel to steal more Palestinian land for its illegal settlement activities.

The bill stipulates that products from the majority of the occupied West Bank will be marked as “Product of Israel” or “Made in Israel.”   It also mandates that goods from the occupied West Bank and Gaza no longer be labeled together but separately, effectively erasing the recognition of their unified identity.

Thus, products would read either “West Bank” or “Gaza” rather than “West Bank and Gaza”.

The bill goes to the finance committee next week.  Should it pass in the Senate, it would further complicate efforts aimed at supporting Palestinian-made goods and boycotting Israeli items.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan condemned the proposal as a step toward ethnic cleansing, saying its provisions “carry hateful and discriminatory implications.”

“A ‘yes’ vote for this bill is erasing the existence of Palestinians,” she said. “Yeah, that’s right - Palestinians also have a right to exist,” she added.

The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, said that by enacting this bill, Congress would be “complicit” in Israel’s “drive to steal Palestinian land and violate international law.”

“It would also deprive American consumers of the ability to know whether the items they purchase are made in illegal Israeli settlements,” it added.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.  The international community views the settlements as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

Calls have mounted worldwide for the boycott of Israeli goods and companies since October 2023, when the Tel Aviv regime unleashed a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.