A network of European groups has called on the EU to impose sanctions on Israel in a letter addressed to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.

Sent by the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), the letter expressed concerns over Israel’s planned annexation of the West Bank, saying it was part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and colonization, before urging the EU to take action against Israel’s clear violation of European and international law.

“This is not the first time that Israel has tried to illegally annex parts of territories it occupies,” said the ECCP, “Israel already annexed occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and Syria’s Golan Heights in 1981, in gross violation of international law.”

EU sanctions needed against Israel’s illegal annexation plans https://t.co/WYgYwIOoPO @JosepBorrellF @CommissionEU @eu_eeas

— ECCP Brussels (@ECCPBrussels) May 6, 2020

ECCP highlighted the “ongoing ethnic cleansing, apartheid and colonization” which they said was “taking place on a daily basis.” They cited Israel’s 13-year-long blockade on Gaza and the situation in the West Bank where “Palestinians struggle with a brutal occupation, expulsion, dispossession, arbitrary arrests and house demolitions among other things.”

After criticizing the EU over its lack of action, ECCP urged Borrell to stand by his February statement in which he warned Israel that “Steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged”.

They argued that the EU had tolls at its disposal to punish Israel’s many violations. Suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement and excluding Israel from participation in EU Framework Programmes funded by European taxpayers’ money, were cited as options.

Perhaps, it is time for some serious rethink. https://t.co/fFGlkeuKTB via @MiddleEastMnt

— Ramzy Baroud (@RamzyBaroud) May 6, 2020

Moreover, under international law, the EU as a whole and each of its Member States have the mandatory obligation to ban trade with illegal Jewish settlements, ECCP added. ECCP insisted that there was no way for the EU to maintain its cooperation with Israel as though it was business as usual while claiming to stand for human rights and the principles of international (humanitarian and human rights) law.

ECCP was founded in 1986 as a network of European committees, organizations, NGOs, and international solidarity movements. Forty civil society organizations and NGOs from 20 European countries endorsed the letter.

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)