As a result of lobbying by Oxfam and War on Want (WoW), the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recommended that retailers label goods produced in the West Bank as “Israeli settlement produce” or “Palestinian produce.” Although the UK government claimed that “we are opposed to boycotts of Israel or Israeli goods,” Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Yigal Palmor said that Israel viewed the labeling recommendation “as a politicized yielding to anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups who want to promote a boycott.”

Indeed, WoW was unsatisfied with DEFRA’s “failure to take stronger action,” and demanded “an immediate and total ban on the sale of settlement goods in Britain.’’

Oxfam, which sent a letter in 2008 to Prime Minister Gordon Brown pressing the government to adopt a similar labeling policy, has a history of BDS activity. Oxfam International has lobbied against a planned upgrade in EU-Israel relations since June 2008, and Oxfam-Belgium was responsible for the antisemitic 2003 ‘’blood orange’’ poster encouraging a boycott of Israel.