Researchers call for a suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement
"Taking the Pulse: Should the EU Suspend its Association Agreement With Israel?"
Israeli leaders are clearly stating their intention to forcibly displace Gazans out of the Strip, a policy which amounts to ethnic cleansing. To uphold its commitment to human rights, should the EU suspend its association agreement with Israel? [...]
Zaha Hassan
Fellow in the Middle East Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
If Article 2 of the EU-Israel association agreement is to have any meaning—and if promoting and preserving human rights and the post-World War II architecture are to escape obsolescence—then the EU must suspend compacts that provide Israel with preferential treatment. [...]
Marek Matusiak
Research Program Coordinator at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW)
Israel’s responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity—committed in Gaza on a mass scale and as a matter of policy—may at this point be controversial only to those who simply choose to ignore the reality. Reality not hidden in Israel itself. [...]
Therefore, the question that the EU faces is not about facts but about politics. Suspending the association agreement with Israel wouldn’t be easy—history and transatlantic concerns may argue against it. But it is necessary. To show Israel its actions are not acceptable and, hopefully, stop them. And to prevent the EU’s much-touted claim to be a beacon of human rights from becoming a global—and even more damagingly internal—object of ridicule. That is, if it hasn’t already.
Nathalie Tocci
Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali
The EU shouldn't suspend the EU-Israel association agreement today. It should have done so a long time ago. [...]
Amélie Ferey
Head of the Defense Research Unit at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales [...]
Such a move would allow the EU to respond to accusations of inertia and double standards—which Russia, China, and Iran—are keen to exploit, and mark a step toward the emergence of a geopolitical Europe. Above all, it would align with the idea that Europe can—and must—embody a democratic alternative on the global stage.
H.A. Hellyer
Senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies
In a word: yes. Ever since the association agreement was signed with Israel in 2000, Tel Aviv has violated Article 2, which specifies that “all the provisions of the Agreement” are based on “respect for human rights and democratic principles,” and it is hard to make the case that Israel has abided by this article while it has maintained its occupation of Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories. [...]
Hussein Baoumi
EU advocacy officer at Amnesty International
Unanimity rules make the suspension of the association agreement unlikely in the short term. But legal, diplomatic, and strategic imperatives are making suspension not only necessary, but inevitable. [...]