“There can be no business as usual with a state maintaining a brutal, unlawful occupation and perpetrating serious violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, on a mass scale.”
Amnesty International has called on the European Union to ensure that its policies are aligned with the International Court of Justice’s findings on Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land, stressing that there can be “no business as usual” with Tel Aviv.
“The ICJ Advisory Opinion leaves no room for doubt,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office in a statement on Wednesday. “The Israeli occupation and its annexation of Palestinian territory are unlawful, as are its policy of establishing settlements, the confiscation of land and exploitation of the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Amnesty submitted a letter to EU Foreign Policy Chief, Josep Borrell and EU Foreign Ministers, ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
‘Comprehensive Arms Embargo’
The letter urged the EU to implement several measures to comply with the ICJ’s findings of July 19.
Geddie said these include imposing a “comprehensive arms embargo” on Israel, in particular “all arms or equipment or technology or parts that allow Israel to maintain its unlawful occupation, including policing and surveillance equipment” used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT); banning trade and investments in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem; banning investing in Israeli companies or banks that are contributing to maintain Israel’s unlawful occupation; and conducting a legal assessment to determine which aspects of EU-Israel cooperation violate international law.
‘Israel’s Continued Occupation of Palestinian Territory Unlawful’ – ICJ
In addition, “The EU and member states must back action at the UN to bring an end to Israeli unlawful occupation: This includes supporting resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council that aim to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of the OPT.”
‘Crimes Against Humanity’
Geddie pointed out that the ICJ’s findings “clearly point to violations of international law committed by Israel and to the obligations of third states not to legitimize or provide any assistance to Israel’s illegal conduct.”
EU member states’ supply of arms and equipment as well as their trade and investment with illegal Israeli settlements “are enabling Israel’s violations of international law and are contrary to their obligations under international law,” she said.
‘Undoubted War Crimes’ – Irish PM Calls for Urgent Review of EU-Israel Agreement
“There can be no business as usual with a state maintaining a brutal, unlawful occupation and perpetrating serious violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, on a mass scale.”
She further stated that “The relentless bombardment of Gaza amid a clear risk of genocide, the deadly spike in state-backed settler violence and the latest military offensive in the West Bank are all by-products of Israel’s unlawful occupation and decades of impunity enabled by EU inaction.”
Settler Violence
“The EU’s call for a ceasefire and curbing settler violence rings hollow until it takes concrete actions – an immediate arms embargo; a ban on trade with Israeli settlements; and support for action at the UN to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Geddie stressed.
The statement also said the ICJ “has demonstrated that Spain, Ireland and Slovenia are correct “in calling for a review of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel.
‘Systematic Human Rights Abuses’ – EU Imposes Sanctions on West Bank Settlers
This is in view of both the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion and the ICJ’s determination that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza in the case brought by South Africa against Israel under the Genocide Convention, it said.
Member states “blocking such a review are acting against the obligations indicated by the ICJ” in its Advisory Opinion.
Over 40,000 Killed
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,602 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,855 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
