The European Parliament’s left alliance presented a citizens’ petition demanding the full suspension of the EU-Israel trade agreement on Thursday (12 November), in view of Israel’s violations of human rights in Palestine.
As it is a European citizen’s initiative (ECI), the petition had to reach a million signatures. It became the fastest ECI to reach that goal, within three months of its launch in January.
The European Left alliance behind the initiative brought together civil society and Palestinian-led movements, as well as citizens, for a rally to mark the 1.1 million signatures, as it was submitted to the European Commission.
According to ECI rules, the EU’s executive arm now has six months to present a response for the initiative.
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Lead trade MEP Bernd Lange slams EU Commission for ‘hiding’ behind voting rules on banning Israeli settlement imports
The EU-Israel association agreement is the main legal framework governing trade, cooperation, and political dialogue between the EU and Israel since 2000.
The agreement has been the key pressure point to weaken the bloc’s relationship with Israel, together with talks of banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.
However, member states such as Germany have continued to veto the process, resulting in the commission’s long-standing impotence to Israel’s ongoing human rights breaches in Palestine.
“To all EU institutions, democracy is asking you to act,” French MEP Manon Aubry, co-chair of the Left, told the crowd that had gathered outside the Berlaymont in support of the measure on Thursday in Brussels.
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