EU: 60+ organisations demand suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement in response to violations of international humanitarian law in Palestine and Lebanon
"EU/Israel: 60+ organizations demand suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement"
In response to Israeli authorities’ violations of international humanitarian law in Palestine and Lebanon, over 60 human rights and humanitarian organizations and trade unions call on the EU and member states to adopt long-overdue measures, including suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending all transfers and transit of arms to Israel.
Dear President von der Leyen,
Dear High Representative / Vice-President Kallas,
Dear Foreign Ministers of the EU member states,
We, the undersigned humanitarian and human rights organisations and trade unions, write to you as Israeli authorities escalate their brutal repression and illegal annexation policies in Palestine, and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Palestine and Lebanon to urge you to adopt the long-overdue measures proposed by President von der Leyen in September 2025, in particular the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, along with any additional steps necessary to comply with international law, including banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending all transfers and transit of arms to Israel.
Already in June 2025, the EU had found Israel in breach of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which identifies respect of human rights and democratic principles as “essential elements” of the treaty. Ongoing actions by Israeli authorities in Israel, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Lebanon further compound that breach, and are causing immense suffering to millions throughout the region.
Last month, the Israeli Knesset passed a discriminatory death penalty law that significantly expands the scope and application of the death penalty, in effect targeting Palestinians only. The law is not only an egregious violation of the rights to life and fair trial of Palestinians, but also adds to the growing body of discriminatory legislation and policies implemented by Israeli authorities against Palestinians, which the International Court of Justice has found to violate Article 3 CERD, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid, in its Advisory Opinion of July 2024. Numerous UN bodies and experts, Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations, and renowned legal scholars, have also documented how these policies and legislation amount to the system and crime against humanity of apartheid.
In the occupied West Bank, Israel is accelerating its illegal annexation policies and practices and is intensifying repression and serious abuses against Palestinians. [...]
The increasingly lethal state-backed settler violence goes hand in hand with the acceleration of illegal settlement expansion and annexation policies through a set of measures recently adopted by Israel to displace and dispossess Palestinians in the West Bank. [...]
Meanwhile, more than 9560 Palestinians are held in Israeli detention, half of whom are held without charges or trial, either under administrative detention or under the Unlawful Combatants’ Law. Israel currently detains 351 Palestinian children, with more than half held in administrative detention without charge or trial. UN experts, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs have documented systematic torture and inhuman and degrading treatment against Palestinian prisoners, and Israeli authorities continue to deny the ICRC access to all places of detention.
In the occupied Gaza Strip, the Israel-made humanitarian catastrophe persists. Israel remains in breach of three binding orders of the International Court of Justice in the case brought by South Africa for alleged violation of the UN Genocide Convention, including to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance, and to preserve evidence. The UN Commission of Inquiry, alongside numerous human rights organisations and legal scholars, has found that Israeli authorities have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of a so-called ceasefire in October 2025, at least 736 Palestinians have been killed. Airstrikes, shelling and gunfire continues on both sides of the so-called “Yellow Line”, a temporary military demarcation that now risks evolving into an enduring territorial division. [...]
Israeli policies throughout the OPT run counter the obligations laid out in the July 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found Israel’s occupation to be unlawful and marred by serious abuses, including Israel’s breach of Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. The Court clarified Israel should end its occupation, dismantle its settlements, allow Palestinians to return to their homes and provide them with reparations for the harm suffered.
Several experts have warned about the possible “Gazafication” of the conflict in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have displaced over 1.2 million people, around one fifth of the country’s population, in their offensive against Hezbollah, following overly broad evacuation orders which do not constitute effective guarantees of protection. The Israeli military has targeted healthcare facilities and workers, journalists, and civilian infrastructure, including bridges, which will severely impact the ability to deliver food for the people who cannot or choose not to leave their homes, and who should continue to be protected under IHL. Israeli authorities indicated the area would become a “buffer zone” in which all Lebanese homes in border villages will be destroyed and Israel will maintain control over the south of Lebanon up to the Litani river, as stated by Minister Katz.
These developments come on the heels of decades of toothless EU statements of concern and calls for a “two-state solution” that have been largely ignored by Israeli authorities, to no consequences. We welcome commitments by five member states (Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Belgium, and The Netherlands) to ban imports of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, as required by international law and the ICJ’s advisory opinion of July 2024, and commend Spain for having already banned the imports of goods and advertisements of both goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements as of September 2025. We urge the EU to do the same, in compliance with Articles 3(5) and 21(1) TEU, and in line with its longstanding, unanimous condemnation of Israeli settlement policies as illegal and an “obstacle to a two-state solution” that the EU claims to pursue.
To date, no qualified majority has been reached in the Council to suspend the trade provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, despite repeated calls from member states, Members of the European Parliament, civil society and the European public. This failure to act risks rendering the Association Agreement’s human rights clause meaningless in practice, further tarnishes the EU’s credibility and emboldens the sense of impunity fueling Israel’s growing abuses. We call on member states to support the suspension of the agreement, and urge the Council to reflect on the reputational, legal and most of all human consequences of continued inaction in the face of mounting evidence of crimes under international law committed by Israel both in Palestine and Lebanon.
The European Union and its member states should immediately suspend all transfers and transit of arms, munitions, equipment, technology, parts and dual-use goods to Israel This obligation is not discretionary but arises under both EU and international law. [...]
The patterns documented in this letter are the predictable consequence of decades of impunity: a failure by the international community to hold Israeli authorities accountable, and a willingness to allow political considerations to override legal obligations. What remains absent is the political will to act. The measures we urge in this letter, suspending arms transfers, banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and suspending the Association Agreement, are not mere political choices. They are legal obligations. The people of Palestine and Lebanon deserve action and accountability, not concerns and condolences. The time to act is long overdue.
Signatories:
International:
- ACT Alliance EU
- ActionAid International
- Amnesty International
- Avaaz
- CIDSE- International family of Catholic Social Justice Organisations
- Caritas Europa
- Ekō
- EuroMed Rights
- Global Witness
- Human Rights Watch
- International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
- Oxfam
- Pax Christi International
- SOLIDAR
- United Against Inhumanity
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) [...]