Suspend EU-Israel treaty, urge dozens of MEPs

A group of 63, cross-party MEPs have urged EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The Agreement is the main treaty between the EU and Israel that has facilitated trade since 2000, and allows Israel to participate in a wide range of EU initiatives.

The MEPs’ letter notes how “Amnesty International and Palestinian organisations have documented that Israel deliberately targeted civilians and committed other war crimes during its recent onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza.”

“These are serious violations of international law and international humanitarian law that cannot be tolerated”, they add.

The MEPs “call on the Commission to consider the suspension of Association Agreement with Israel unless Israel takes substantial and immediate steps to bring its conduct in line with international law”, and point out how

the EU’s lack of substantial action with regards to Israel appears out of step with the speed at which it has implemented restrictive measures on Russia with regards to the Ukraine crisis in recent months, as well as the restrictive measures implemented against more than 30 other countries.

In September 2014, Palestinian civil society organisations made a similar plea for suspension to the then- foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and a similar appeal was also made in November, by more than 300 human rights groups, trade unions and political parties from across Europe.