Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares on June 23 called for the European Union to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement, and to ban arms sales to Israel, citing human rights violations from Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
In particular, Albares said he would call for “the immediate suspension of the association agreement, an embargo on arms sales by the European Union to Israel, and individual sanctions on all those who want to definitively derail the two-state solution.” He continued, “It is not denunciations that are going to stop this inhumane war in Gaza, it is this action…. We cannot look the other way,” adding that the EU “must act when grave violations of international humanitarian law are taking place,” reported Palestine Chronicle on June 23.
The EU has drafted an eight-page review of the bloc’s EU-Israel Association Agreement, which stated that there were “indications” that Israel is in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the agreement, which article covers human rights, Euronews reports on June 23. The report, notes the Palestine Chronicle, stated that Israel’s “continued restrictions to the provision of food, medical equipment, and other vital supplies affect the entire population of Gaza present on the affected territory.”
The EU-Israel Association Agreement entered into force on June 1, 2000, after being ratified by the European Parliament, the Knesset, and the parliaments of the 15 Member States at the time.
