The long-overdue review of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, requested by a majority of European governments is a critical step that - while falling dramatically short of what is required - marked an important development in the direction of enforcing accountability in accordance with international law. Following the Foreign Affairs Council meeting with European Foreign Ministers yesterday, June 23rd, in Brussels, the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) and the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) express our deep discontent over the lack of concrete actions proposed, and absence of any firm commitment to uphold the legal obligations that bind the EU and its Member States.

Article 2 anchors the EU-Israel Association Agreement in the respect for human rights and democratic principles, making them “an essential element” of the Agreement. Those principles have been egregiously violated by Israel over the past 21 months, as it commits its live-streamed genocide against Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip with shameful international complicity. Israel’s  indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects across the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), man-made famine in the Gaza Strip, systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, and  denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination are well documented and amount to grave breaches of international law, as revealed by the leaked EU review.

Instead of a clear commitment to abide by its obligations under Article 2 by suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, we are deeply disappointed to learn that the EU has chosen to continue business as usual, buying Israel time to expand and continue its genocidal campaign, policy of mass forcible displacement and dispossession, and annexation of Palestine. Rather than taking immediate and concrete actions to end its complicity in the ongoing genocide, and in Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime, the EU continues to engage in diplomatic discussions with Israel. This is despite Israel’s complete disregard for the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) three Orders on provisional measures demanding that Israel allow the full and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid and agencies;  the multiple requests from EU Member States to allow humanitarian aid in Gaza, especially since the last Association Agreement Council held in February 2025; the ICJ Advisory Opinions in 2004 and 2024 affirming the illegality of Israel’s policies and practices in the OPT and the illegality of its occupation, which it stated must end immediately; and its attacks against the UN, its agencies, and the International Criminal Court. This clearly demonstrates that Israel has no intent to halt its rapid settlement expansion, violent onslaught on the West Bank, and genocidal campaign in Gaza. The historic impunity Israel continues to enjoy ensures it is under no pressure to change its course - instead allowing it to pursue its policy of Palestinian erasure by destroying Palestinians in Gaza and annexing what remains of Palestine. Further warnings, talks or high-level discussions will do nothing to stop Israel’s wide scale and systematic attack on the human rights of Palestinians - a fact of which EU officials are well aware.  The international guarantee of universal human rights, enshrined in the provisions of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, are rendered meaningless if their manifest breach is not backed by clear and enforceable consequences.

The ICJ Advisory Opinion issued on 19 July 2024 provides to date the clearest legal basis for action. It goes beyond individual human rights violations and confirms what Palestinian human rights organisations and legal experts have argued for decades: Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territory is unlawful in its very essence and must come to an immediate end. Israel’s presence and acts in the OPT amounts to continuing violations of peremptory norms of international law, from which no derogation is permitted, including the prohibition of genocide, racial segregation and apartheid, annexation and acquisition of territory through use of force, and the unlawful denial of Palestinians inalienable right to self-determination - all of which the ICJ acknowledged and the EU review confirms.

UN human rights experts have stated that in order for all States, including EU members, to meet their obligations triggered by the ICJ Advisory Opinion, they must, inter alia, “[c]ancel or suspend economic relationships, trade agreements and academic relations with Israel that may contribute to its unlawful presence and apartheid regime in the occupied Palestinian territory” and “[i]mpose a full arms embargo on Israel”.

Given the extreme and immediate gravity of the situation, we urge the EU and its Member States to ensure that this review process is not reduced to a mere procedural formality, diplomatic exercise, or part of a checklist of consequenceless moves towards endings Israel’s manifestly unlawful conduct, which would in practice simply buy Israel more time to intensify its genocide and further entrench its unlawful occupation and apartheid regime.

Despite the overwhelming and massive body of highly probative evidence, repeated warnings from Palestinian and international civil society, and the review of Article 2, the EU has continued business as usual with Israel. Several EU Member States continue to provide military equipment to Israel, effectively undermining both international law and the EU’s own legal framework while continuing to aid and assist Israeli crimes. The EU’s ongoing complicity violates: the Genocide Convention; the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (including their Additional Protocols); the Apartheid Convention; the Arms Trade Treaty; the Draft Articles on State Responsibility; the EU Common Position; numerous and repeated ICJ rulings; fundamental provisions of customary international law; and makes a mockery of Article 2 of the Association Agreement, not to mention the rule of international law itself.

The EU and its Member States are not simply encouraged to act, but are legally obligated to do so under both EU law and peremptory norms of international law. European inaction has not been neutral – it has actively enabled and encouraged Israel’s genocide and violent attacks Palestinians and emboldened it in pursuing its annexationist goals. The results of the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, while important, reaffirm what Palestinian and international organisations, UN experts, and international courts and commissions of inquiry have long confirmed. Hence, the review must be rightfully interpreted as an alarming and urgent call to enact concrete measures to counter the EU’s complicity in grave violations of human rights, mainly by terminating the EU-Israel Association Agreement and ensuring Member States halt all diplomatic, financial, and military support to Israel. Anything less sends a clear message to Palestinians and Third States generally that the EU is actively endorsing the erosion of international law and human rights - and consequently the erasure of Palestine.

The EU and its 27 Member States must comply with their legal obligations. We therefore reiterate our urgent calls to the EU and its Member States to:

1. Exercise pressure to ensure that the review process is conclusive and not open-ended, with a clear timeline and outcome;
2. Highlight the prolonged systematic violations of international law that are not solely contingent upon humanitarian aid;
3. Vote for the immediate termination of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, including all economic, trade and institutional cooperation;
4. Outline and implement concrete follow-up measures for Member States, in line with their legal obligations - including imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel, cooperating with accountability mechanisms, sanctioning Israel, and Israeli officials and settlers, and prosecuting them for the array of international crimes they continue to commit, and ending all exploitation of Palestinian maritime resources and energy deals with Israel, including terminating the Great Sea Interconnector;
5. Uphold their obligations under the Genocide Convention and the 2004 and 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinions, by ceasing all forms of complicity with Israel’s illegal occupation and genocide.

Organisations:  

1. Al-Haq Europe
2. Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC)
   • Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association
   • Aldameer Association for Human Rights
   • Al-Haq
   • Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
   • The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
   • Defence for Children International Palestine Section
   • Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
   • Hurryyat – Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
   • Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
3. Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) comprising comprising over 135 Palestinian civil society organisations across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)