EU should put upgrade of relations with Israel on hold say NGOs
A coalition of 21 organisations request the EU to put the upgrade of EU-Israel relations on hold pending tangible progress in Israel’s respect for human rights, international humanitarian law and its peace process commitments.
A letter signed by 21 European and international human rights, development and humanitarian organisations has been sent to the 27 EU Foreign Ministers with regard to the ongoing debate about the upgrade of EU-Israel relations and in view of the 9th EU-Israel Association Council meeting, which has been postponed until 15-16 June 2009.
The organisations call on the EU to:
1) Confirm publicly that the upgrading of mutual relations is put on hold, pending tangible progress in Israel’s respect for human rights, international humanitarian law and its peace process commitments;
2) Use the opportunity of the EU-Israel Association Council to advance the necessary steps including an immediate end to the Gaza blockade and to the settlement expansion and house demolitions;
3) Take further steps to ensure that any existing cooperation instruments between the EU and Israel are only applied to Israel proper and in no case to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
4) Urge Israel to resume as soon as possible its stalled human rights dialogue with the EU; and
5) Ensure that any future EU-Israel Action Plan contains concrete action points regarding Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and the peace process, which are missing in the current Action Plan.
