Migros spokeswoman, Monika Wiebel, stated that this was not a boycott of settlement products, but that they are purely informing their customers of the source of  products so they can then decide which products they would like to buy, according to imemc.org. From 2013, at such time as the chain has received exact information from its suppliers, products will be labelled as originating from “East Jerusalem, Israeli settlement zone” or “West Bank, Israeli settlement zone”.

Migros says it wants to offer customers greater transparency because the Swiss government and the United Nations consider the settlements to be illegal under international law.

The Swiss government has released a statement saying “The colonization of the occupied Palestinian territory, both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, is illegal and constitutes a violation of international law, ” Times of Israel reported.

The move comes just weeks after Denmark and South Africa said they would stop labeling products made in the settlements as Israeli.

In 2009, the British government issued an official but non-binding proposal urging retailers to label products produced in the West Bank telling whether they were made by Palestinians or Israeli settlers. Denmark appears to be following Britain’s move, with the Foreign Ministry spokesman telling the AFP last week that the government was “preparing a system of information based on retailers’ voluntary participation, identifying food products coming from Israeli settlements.”