Agnes Callamard@AgnesCallamard
🚨🇪🇺🇮🇱 Failure to suspend EU-Israel Association Agreement must spur member states to take unilateral action:
It’s beyond shameful that a majority of #EU member states, led by #Germany and #Italy, continue to block the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Countries committed to uphold international law must not remain silent while others actively undermine the very principles they claim to defend.
As the current holder of the Presidency of the @EUCouncil, Ireland is in a powerful position to influence the EU’s course of action on #Israel. It must seize this critical opportunity to help ensure that member states meet their obligations under international law. Ireland’s experience of colonization, famine and conflict, its leading role in international efforts to end apartheid in South Africa and its recent albeit limited progress towards banning imports of goods from settlements, give it a unique perspective and authority that should be used to seek accountability for Israel’s grave violations and to anchor EU policy on the Occupied Palestinian Territory firmly in the protection of human rights.
If the EU will not act together, member states must act individually and unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation with Israel that may contribute to its grave violations of international law, including by imposing a comprehensive embargo on the export of arms and surveillance equipment and related technology, and a total ban on trade with and investment in Israel’s illegal settlements in the OPT.
The EU must stop allowing Israel to face no meaningful consequences for its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, its system of apartheid against Palestinians, including its ethnic cleansing campaign in the occupied West Bank, its unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory, and war crimes in Lebanon.
In the pages of history, there will be a clear distinction between those who failed to act in the face of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and those who stood up for humanity