Germany distances itself from the “controversial European Union guidelines” banning cooperation with Israeli entities beyond the Green Line, a foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag  announced on Friday.

In a statement  issued by MP Philipp Missfedler, the Bundestag spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian  Democratic Union party and its coalition partner the Bavarian Christian Social  Union, he stated the guidelines are “pure ideology and symbolic politics” and will  not contribute to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Missfelder stated it is encouraging that the Federal Government has moved away from the  new EU directives, which declared that from January 1 2014, Israeli projects in the West Bank,  the Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights will no longer be given European Union financial backing.

He added that the European regulations are not “objective  requirements” because over the last seven years of the approximately 800 million  Euros of financial aid from Brussels to Israel, only 0.5% was funneled into  projects covering the disputed territories.

“Israel is the recognized  administrative power in the territories without which approved development  projects like solar energy or sewage works could not be installed,” Missfelder stated.

He  continued that an implementation of the new EU guidelines could mean an “end of  research cooperation with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem because some of  their academics have an address in East Jerusalem.”

It is unclear if the German  position will reverse the EU action and lead to backtracking among other  countries within the 28 member EU body.

Missfelder said the EU guidelines  have a similar quality to the recent legislative initiative of the Green Party  in the Bundestag to label products from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East  Jerusalem.

The Green Party legislative initiative also fails to  contribute to a” constructive solution of the conflict in the Palestinian  territories,” said Missfelder.

He added that “instead of issuing statements  hostile to Israel, the Green Party faction should concentrate on a solution to  the essential questions of the Middle East conflict: Israel’s right to exist, an  end to terrorism and fundamentalist violence, as well as the creation of a  foundation for a two state solution, with final borders for both states.”

Missfelder’s disavowal of the product labeling measure appears to contradict  Germany’s Ambassador to Israel, Andreas Michaelis, who defended in a June  Jerusalem Post opinion article labeling Israeli products made in the West Bank.

“EU  consumer protection law sets very detailed requirements for retail labeling.They exist to provide a level playing field for trade across Europe  and to inform consumers on the origin of products,” wrote  Michaelis.

Jewish organizations such as the Wiesenthal Center and the  prominent German-Jewish journalist Henryk M.Broder declared the product labeling  measure to be a de-facto boycott of Israeli merchandise, which recalls the  Hitler movement’s boycott of Jewish businesses.

Michaelis, however, wrote, “Neither  are we in the business of calling for boycotts.”

The German Greens have come under fire because of their aggressive legislative push to label Israeli  products. The Neo-Nazi NPD party issued a similar demarcation measure to the  Green Party in a East German state legislature last year. The Green party deputy  Kerstin Müller played a critical role in the initiative targeting Israeli  settlement products. She is slated to take over the reins of the German Green  Party’s Heinrich Böll foundation office in Tel Aviv later this  year.

“Obviously, a person who played a leading role in this initiative  is uniquely unsuitable to represent the Böll Foundation in Israel, but perhaps  they have an opening available in Ramallah,” Efraim Zuroff , the head of the  Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, told the Jerusalem Post last  month.

Müller has faced intense criticism over the last three years from  Germany’s Jewish community. The Central Council of Jews in Germany said in 2010  Müller displays an “intolerably paternalistic tone” toward Israel and toward  Jews in Germany. That year, she supported an anti-Israel parliamentary  resolution and attacked the council in a letter because its leadership  criticized the resolution. The resolution rebuked Israel for its interception of  the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, which tried to break Israel’s legal blockade of  the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The head of the Berlin Jewish community,  Dr. Gideon Joffe, said in June that Müller’s conduct is anti-Semitic because she  singled out only the Jewish state for product labeling.

“Kerstin Müller  is an experienced foreign policy politician and with her longtime involvement in  German-Israeli relations and the Middle East peace process make her an ideal  representative for the foundation in Tel Aviv,” Ralf Fücks, the head of the  Heinrich-Böll Foundation, wrote the Post in an email response.

Prof.  Gerald Steinberg, from the Jerusalem-based watchdog group NGO Monitor, told the  Post at the time that“The Heinrich Böll Foundation irresponsibly channels German  taxpayer funds to some causes and organizations that promote political warfare  against Israel.”.

He cited the Greens support for “such radical  Palestinian groups as the Applied Research Institute in  Jerusalem.”

Michael Schroeren, spokesman for the Green party faction in  the Bundestag, rejected the criticisms leveled at Müller.