ELA once again calls for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement

Trade union`s call to European leaders: urgent action needed on Israel`s death penalty law

To the attention of:

Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, EC Vice-President,

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission,

Antonio Costa, President of European Council,

European Ministers of Foreign Affairs,

European Prime Ministers,

We, the undersigned European trade union organisations, call on the European Commission and European leaders to take a principled stand by immediately suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Israel has already crossed key EU red lines: expanding settlements in the E1 area to block a future Palestinian state, ethnic cleansing, banning UNRWA and attacking EU and European -funded facilities, expelling international NGOs, maintaining impunity for security force abuses and settler violence, torturing prisoners, obstructing religious freedoms, attacking journalists, and denying access to the EU and European leaders, among others.

Most recently the Israeli Knesset has passed a discriminatory law allowing the execution of Palestinian political prisoners. It has now become the first state to codify a death sentence that applies in practice to one ethnic group, while another is effectively shielded from it.

While the EU and European countries oppose the death penalty under all circumstances, its reaction so far has been limited to expressions of concern rather than concrete action. We would not have witnessed this terrible act, if it wasn’t for the silence of the international community and years of Israel`s impunity.

In the past weeks, Israel killed more than 2,400 people in Lebanon, including at least 124 children, while more than 1.1 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Away from the headlines, Israel has killed at least 673 people in Gaza since the ceasefire, bringing the death toll in the devastated territory to 72,500 since October 2023.

The EU and European countries must respond to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, but also state-backed settler violence in the West Bank, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and Israel’s reinstatement of the aparthaid death penalty against Palestinians.

The International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory to be illegal and that Israel is in breach of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination including apartheid. Israel`s leaders are wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICJ called on all states to take immediate measures to end their complicity with Israel`s crimes.

It is inexcusable that most of the European governments and the EU have still not responded to this landmark ruling from the ICJ or acted on its provisional conclusion from January 2024 that Israel is plausibly violating the Genocide Convention.

We support the call from over a million of European citizens for the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, in line with the EU`s own findings on Israel`s breach of human rights clause of the treaty.

We, the undersigned  European trade union organisations urge you to:

• Suspend all forms of security and defence cooperation between your countries and Israel as a necessary measure to uphold international legal obligations and human rights commitments,
• Impose a comprehensive military embargo on Israel, meaning no sales, purchase or transfer of military components, technologies, and dual-use items,
• Immediately suspend association agreements with Israel,  including the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Endorsing unions:

European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine,

ACV/CSC (Belgium),

Andalusian Workers` Union – SAT (Andalusia),

CCOO – Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (Spain),

CGIL (Italy),

CGSP-ALR Bruxelles / ACOD-LRB Brussel (Belgium),

CGTP-IN (Portugal),

CFDT (France),

CNE/CSC (Belgium),

Confederation Intersindical Galega (Galicia),

Confederación Intersindical (Spain),

Craigavon Trades Council (Ireland),

CWU (Ireland),

Dundee Trades Union Council (Scotland, UK),

ELA (Basque Country),

Fagforbundet (Norway),

Fellesforbundet Branch 850, Oslo Graphic Workers’ Union (Norway),

FGTB-ABVV (Belgium),

FNEC FP-FO (France),

Fórsa (Ireland),

IAC – Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya (Catalunya),

Intersindical Valenciana (Valencia),

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ireland),

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (Ireland),

La Centrale Générale-FGTB (Belgium),

LAB (Basque Country),

NAWA Working Group FNV, (Netherlands),

SIPTU (Ireland),

Union syndicale Solidaires (France),