Spain and eight other countries want the European Union to take action against Israel for its violations of the human rights of the Palestinian population and raise the pressure at the doors that the high representative, Kaja Kallas, puts on the table of the 27 a proposal for the review of the UE-Israel trade agreement for the massacre in the Gaza Strip. The concern that these countries have is that the answer is warm, before the equidistance of many countries, including Germany, with Tel Aviv and that Kallas do not even propose concrete measures to adopt next Monday but that it is limited to analyzing the situation.
In that context, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Sweden place the European Union to take measures to cut trade with the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which established that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal. What they want is that the European Commission “examine how the trade of goods and services linked to illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied with international law can be harmonized,” according to Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot, in a post in X (formerly Twitter).
What these countries remember is that the International Court of Justice clearly established that third countries must refrain from any trade or investment that contributes to maintain an illegal situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. ”
“Defending international law is a shared responsibility. In an international order based on norms, legal clarity must guide political decisions. A unified European approach can contribute to ensure that our policies reflect our values,” prevot ditch.
In the Charter, also signed by José Manuel Albares and sent to the high representative and the Commission of Commerce, remember that the European Commission committed to the European Parliament to carry out an “in -depth analysis” next to the EU Council, where governments are represented, to see how the opinion of the International Court of Justice can fulfill.
“We have not seen any proposal to initiate debates on how to effectively interrupt the trade of goods and services with illegal settlements,” the ministers reproach. “In a unified European market, in which the European Union has exclusive competence on commercial policy, we need the European Commission to develop proposals for concrete measures that guarantee compliance by the union of the obligations indicated by the Court,” they claim.
“We are willing to collaborate with the EU institutions, and to share information, to fulfill our own obligations. We ask that a clear calendar be established in the relevant work groups with a view to achieving full fulfillment of the advisory opinion around their first anniversary,” they add.
The petition is produced by the eve that the Foreign Action Service delivered at 27 the analysis of the review of the commercial agreement with Israel, that a majority of Member States supported, at the request of the Netherlands, a year and a half after the massacre of the Gaza Strip began in which more than 50,000 people have been killed. The movement occurred before the total siege of the strip, where Benjamín Netanyahu does not let humanitarian aid in.
“The declared objective of Israel is to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. Altering, reducing or annexing territory is a direct violation of international law,” Kallas said on Wednesday in a debate in the Eurocamara in which he raised the tone against Netanyahu by accusing him for the first time directly from violating international standards by also forcing the displacement of the civilian population Gazatí.
Despite raising the tone, the head of European diplomacy acknowledged that in the EU they have their hands tied by the deep division that the conflict in the Middle East implies. “I can propose measures that will not move forward in the Colegio de Commissioners or at the Council,” he said on Tuesday. “Will the suspension of the agreement stop the slaughter? We know the answer. It will not stop the killing,” added the Estonia, who was in favor of raising the pressure but not closing “the communication channels with Israel.”
His predecessor in office, Josep Borrell, has questioned this Thursday the passivity of the EU before Israel and has unmarked the position regarding the attack on Iran, that the president of the European Commission has come to endorse as “the right to self -defense” and that the high representative has not questioned under the premise that Iran is “the greatest source of instability” of the region. “I am not a fan of the Ayatolás regime,” he said, “but that does not mean that one can bombard a neighbor every time his government likes him. What kind of world do we want to live?, Borrell has asked in an act at the Arab house, the EFE agency collects.
