On September 1 and 2 an informal meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the EU will take place in Dublin. We sent an urgent call to EU officials to express our outrage at the European Union’s continued failure to take concrete punitive actions against Israel.
For the attention of:
Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Ms. Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU Member States
Regarding: Urgent call ahead of the Informal Gymnich Meeting in Dublin
We are writing to express our outrage at the European Union’s continued failure to take concrete punitive actions against Israel. Despite repeated UN warnings identifying elements of an ongoing genocide, the EU’s response has remained confined to passive monitoring, effectively giving a green light to ongoing atrocities. Even the ban on settlement products, which for decades now has been an obvious measure, was made impossible at the last FAC meeting.
The cost of this political paralysis is measured in staggering human loss:
- Israel has killed at least 1,286 Palestinians and injured 4,257 others in Gaza due to ongoing violations since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025 (as reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health on August 24, 2026),
- Israel has killed at least 21,289 children in Gaza since October 2023, as reported by Unicef
- At least 300 children have been killed since the October 10, 2025 truce went into effect, which UNICEF highlights as an average of one child killed every single day under the so-called “ceasefire”. Humanitarian groups emphasize that these figures remain incomplete. Thousands of additional children are currently unaccounted for and presumed dead, buried deep beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, schools, and displacement camps.
Israel has taken nearly 70% of the territory of Gaza, is completely demolishing anything remaining in this area, and refuses to withdraw its military forces despite the international agreements. It is restricting the import of food, medical supplies and essential goods to far below the minimum required, and forbids any shelter equipment to be brought in. Major NGOs have been expelled from Gaza, and international journalists are still forbidden to enter the Strip.While the EU delays decisive action, the situation in the occupied West Bank has also spiraled into unprecedented terror.
State-backed Israeli settler attacks against Palestinian communities have reached an all-time high, characterized by, amongst other things, armed raids, burning of agricultural land, and forced displacement.
- Over 1,400 settler attacks have been recorded since late 2023, directly aiming at ethnically cleansing rural areas.
- Israel has demolished over 1,700 Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, leaving thousands of families homeless.
- More than 1200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers during this period alone.
The human rights situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank has deteriorated beyond any acceptable humanitarian threshold. The systemic blockades on humanitarian aid, unprecedented civilian casualties, and accelerated illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank directly violate the core tenets of international law.
As the European Commission’s own internal assessments have established, Israel is in clear and persistent breach of Article 2 of the Association Agreement, which states that relations between the parties must be conditional upon the “respect for human rights and democratic principles”.
Maintaining preferential trade, with financial and political access to the EU single market while these systemic violations continue, erodes the European Union’s credibility as a global defender of the rule of law. Business as usual cannot continue. The European public has expressed its democratic will clearly: the European Citizens’ Initiative “Justice for Palestine” recently concluded with over 1.3 million signatures demanding the immediate suspension of this agreement.
While we acknowledge the political sensitivities and internal debates within the Council, the European Union has both the legal mechanism and the moral obligation to act.
By refusing to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the European Union remains economically and politically complicit in these systemic violations of international law. Empty rhetoric will no longer suffice while entire populations are being erased.
During the upcoming informal Gymnich meeting in Dublin, we demand that you move beyond internal political divisions. You must immediately freeze all preferential trade with Israel, and halt military and economic cooperation. History will judge your stance.