The European Union should impose a trade ban on goods coming from “unlawful” Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, Amnesty International has said.
In a letter to the 27 EU foreign ministers, the human rights organisation called for a ban on investments in Israeli companies facilitating the “unlawful occupation” of Palestinian lands, which it said should include banks, as well as companies involved in constructing new Israeli settlements.
The correspondence urged EU countries to impose “a comprehensive arms embargo” on Israel. In the letter, Eve Geddie, head of Amnesty International’s EU office, said the bloc should take steps to ban the trade of goods coming from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
While the organisation has called for an embargo on the sale of weapons to Israel previously, the correspondence is the first time it has supported a trade ban, a spokeswoman said. Any trade restrictions covering Israeli settler goods needed to come with a “punitive mechanism” for countries which breached it, Ms Geddie wrote.
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Amnesty International said a ban on investments in Israeli companies linked to settlements should cover firms that make weapons, as well as surveillance and policing equipment. The proposed restrictions should extend to financial institutions and companies involved in constructing settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, the letter said.
The letter was sent to EU foreign ministers and Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign affairs chief, ahead of a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
Foreign affairs ministers are due to meet to discuss the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing negotiations to try to agree a ceasefire in Gaza, following the Israeli invasion launched in response to the October 7th Hamas militant attack. The attack killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. More than 40,000 people have been killed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.
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Amnesty International called for the EU to do more in the wake of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, in a non-binding opinion, that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories were in breach of international law. Ms Geddie wrote that EU countries needed to support efforts at the United Nations “to bring an end to Israeli unlawful occupation”.
The ICJ had “clearly determined” that Israel had violated its obligations under international law by transferring Israeli settlers into Palestinian territories in the West Bank, she wrote. The EU needed to “fully acknowledge and accept” the findings the court made earlier this year, she said. “Failure to do so would severely undermine the EU’s credibility and the application of international law in other contexts.”
The letter from Amnesty International backed a push from Ireland and Spain to have the European Commission conduct a review of its trade agreement with Israel, in light of the invasion of Gaza.
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