EU Delay on Israel Settlement Ban Draws Accusations of Complicity
The European Union has come under criticism for moving too slowly to uphold international law ahead of a long-awaited discussion on whether to prohibit trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday are set to consider a potential ban on imports from the settlements as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing genocide, amid intensifying entity-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 235 children.
However, the 27 foreign ministers are not expected to make any decisions on trade measures because of continuing disagreements over how to respond to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his regime.
A full or partial ban on imports from Israeli settlements is one of three options outlined by the European Commission. The remaining proposals include imposing tariffs high enough to make trade commercially unfeasible or introducing an import licensing system. Euronews first reported on the leaked document.
Written in cautious bureaucratic language, the paper states that the proposed measures “can have a substantive impact on the EU-Israel relationship, also in view of the upcoming election," indicating that the Commission is taking Israel’s general election later this year into account.
Israelis are expected to vote by Oct. 27 in the first election since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, products originating from the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Golan Heights, Gaza, and the West Bank, including the eastern part of al-Quds, do not qualify for the preferential trade benefits granted to Israeli goods.
At least 10 EU member states, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, argue that the bloc is obligated to halt trade with occupied territories following a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which called on "Israel" to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible.” The court also found that Israel had committed multiple violations of international law, including activities that amounted to apartheid.
The ruling further stated that countries must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assists in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory."
More than 100 legal scholars have endorsed ending trade with Israeli settlements, writing this month to the European Commission’s top trade and foreign policy officials to affirm what they described as the EU’s “international legal obligation."
Despite mounting pressure, the EU is not expected to move quickly because member states remain divided over whether a ban on trade with illegal settlements can be approved through a qualified majority vote or requires unanimous support.
Alberto Alemanno, a law professor at HEC Paris Business School, said, “Each month of delay doesn’t just postpone compliance, it deepens the EU’s own legal liability for sustaining trade with an unlawful occupation.”
Source: The Guardian
