We sent an urgent letter to the EU officials and European Ministers For Foreign Affairs calling for sanctions on Israel and suspension of association agreements with Israel, including the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
————
On March 30 the Israeli government approved the death penalty law, enforced through military courts with a 96% conviction rate, but only to be used against Palestinians.
Not even apartheid South Africa codified executions for only one ‘race group’. Israel has now become the first state to codify a death sentence that applies in practice to one ethnic group, while another is effectively shielded from it. This is yet another proof that Israel is an apartheid state.
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese’s latest report is clear that Israel’s systematic use of torture and deliberate neglect of prisoners constitutes an integral part of the ongoing genocide.
The EU and some European countries issued statements of “concerns” or “deep concerns” – but those statements fell on deaf ears. For years the EU and European countries have been issuing empty statements of concern, while in fact shielding Israel from any accountability. Israel would not be able to continue to commit all its grave violations of IL without the silent support and complicity of the EU and European countries.
Even before Israel passed its apartheid death penalty bill, the EU itself found Israel in breach of article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. It has now been over 18 months since the ICJ declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory to be illegal and that Israel is in breach of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination including apartheid. The ICJ called on all states to take immediate measures to end their complicity with these crimes. It is beyond comprehension that the EU and most of the European countries have still not responded to this landmark advisory opinion from the ICJ or acted on its provisional conclusion from January 2024 that Israel is plausibly violating the Genocide Convention.
If Europe is to salvage the foundation of international law and multilateral order and resist the unilateral hegemonic logic of the US-Israel axis, it must impose sanctions on Israel and suspend its association agreements with Israel, including the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
We also reiterate our call for the implementation of EU member states’ legal obligations under international law, including comprehensive military embargo and the full suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement, including Horizon Europe programme.
In light of this, we urge you to:
- immediately put on the table a proposal to fully suspend the EU-IAA – to be raised at the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting,
- suspend all forms of political, diplomatic and economic cooperation between your countries and Israel as a necessary measure to uphold international legal obligations and human rights commitments,
- Impose a comprehensive military embargo on Israel, meaning no sales, purchase or transfer of military components, technologies, and dual-use items.