Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that Sweden has started to note that wines produced in the Golan Heights originate in "Israel, occupied Syrian land". Winery sources in Israel considered this step and “unprecedented and worrisome”.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli embassy in Stockholm noted that it is investigating claims that the warning is being issued for several wines on the Web site of the Swedish government’s chain of shops that sell wine; the chain is the only body permitted to market alcoholic beverages in Sweden.
Earlier this week, The Golan Heights Winery approached the Israeli embassy – the office of the commercial attache at the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, and requested Foreign Ministry intervention.
Meanwhile, Sweden Jews have protested the step and claimed that the way of labeling the wine from the Golan Heights is a “political move by a government body”.
Sources representing Jewish bodies in Sweden said that such an indication had never been made regarding any other country, not even South Africa during apartheid.
The Golan Heights is an occupied Syrian territory captured by Israel in 1967 and was unilaterally annexed and considered part of Israel in 1981.
