Dear President von der Leyen,
We, the undersigned human rights organizations, trade unions and civil society groups, urge the European Commission to take action to ban all trade and business between the EU and Israel's illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem. Such action is essential for the EU and its member states to comply with their obligations under international law.
On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark advisory opinion affirming that states must not recognize, aid, or assist the unlawful situation arising from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. The Court made clear that all states have “the obligation … to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the [OPT] or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory”, and to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the OPT”.
The EU’s current policy of distinguishing between goods produced in Israel and those produced in settlements falls short of these obligations. While this differentiation denies preferential trade terms for settlement goods, it still allows such goods to enter the EU market. This contravenes the obligations under international humanitarian law and as laid out by the ICJ, which require a complete ban on trade and business with Israel’s illegal settlements.
By trading with Israel’s illegal settlements, the EU, its member states and EU companies are not only breaching their own legal obligations but also contributing to the serious and systemic human rights and other international law abuses underpinning the settlement enterprise. The ICJ ruling laid those out in detail, concluding that Israel’s legislation and policies constitute a breach of article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid.
The EU member states have repeatedly issued statements unanimously condemning Israel’s settlements as illegal under international law and as a significant obstacle to achieving a two-state solution. Those statements have often noted that the settlement enterprise drives severe abuses, including forced evictions, demolitions of civilian infrastructures (often targeting EU-funded projects), land confiscations, forced transfers, and widespread violence by state-backed settlers and Israeli forces. These abuses have been deemed so serious by EU member states that they overcame their sharp divisions and imposed targeted sanctions on limited number of settlers and settler-affiliated entities.
Yet, despite EU consensus about the settlements’ illegality and their link to serious abuses, the EU continues to trade and allow business with them, helping to sustain the serious human rights and international law violations inexorably intertwined with settlements’ maintenance and expansion.
In light of the urgent need for compliance with international law and to halt EU, member states’ and businesses’ contribution to Israel’s serious abuses, we call on the Commission to immediately take the following actions:
- Introduce Legislation to Ban Trade with and Investments in Settlements: Propose legal acts banning all imports and exports of goods and services from and to Israel’s illegal settlements in the OPT as well as investments therein; we note, in that regard, that the Commission has the authority to propose a ban on trade with settlements under the Common Commercial Policy, as it has acknowledged; and
- Issue a Strengthened Business Advisory: Pending the adoption of such legislation, publish a reinforced advisory document discouraging European businesses from activities benefitting the Israeli settlements. This should go significantly further than the existing EU advisory document in order to discourage all trade with settlements (as Norway has done) and engagement with Israeli banks and enterprises operating in illegal settlements due to the significant risk of contributing to serious human rights violations and breaches of international law and ensure that the entire value chain falls under the scope of the legislation.
We look forward to a prompt reply, and hope the European Commission will swiftly take the measures necessary to comply with international law and to end complicity in abuses.
Yours sincerely,
The signatories.
- 11.11.11
- A Plataforma Unitária de Solidariedade com a Palestina (PUSP)
- Academics for Palestine - Ireland
- ACT Alliance EU
- Act Church of Sweden
- ActionAid Denmark
- ActionAid France
- ActionAid International
- ActionAid International Italia E.T.S.
- ACV-CSC Belgium
- Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
- Al-Haq
- Al-Haq Europe
- Amis de Sabeel France
- Amnesty International
- Anti-Racist Forum ry
- AOI ETS
- ARCI
- Association Belgo-Palestinienne WB
- Association Culture et Paix (ACP)
- Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
- Association France Palestine Solidarité
- Assopace Palestina
- Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine/Belgian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BA4P/BACBI)
- BePax
- Biblioteca publica
- Broederlijk Delen
- Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
- CAMPAGNA PONTI E NON MURI - PAX CHRISTI ITALIA
- Caritas Europa
- CCFD-Terre Solidaire
- CEDETIM
- Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
- CGTP-IN
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
- Chrétiens de la Méditerranée
- Christian Aid Ireland
- CIDSE
- CNCD-11.11.11
- CNE CSC Belgium
- Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe
- Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO)
- Confédération générale du travail (CGT)
- Conselho Português para a Paz e Cooperação
- COSTRUTTORI DI PACE
- CRID
- CULTURE DE PALESTINE
- Danish Muslim Aid
- De-Colonizer
- Defence for Children International
- DIAKONIA (Sweden)
- Društvo OV-CA
- Dutch Scholars for Palestine
- Een Andere Joodse Stem (Another Jewish Voice, Belgium)
- EinStaat – Konfliktzonen Kunst & Denkkollektive - OneState Embassy Art collective
- Ekō
- Entraide et Fraternité
- Eurocadres
- EuroMed Rights
- European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine - ECCP
- European Legal Support Center
- European Middle East Project (EuMEP)
- European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine
- Fackförbundet ST
- Fédération Artisans du Monde
- Fem-R ry
- Finnish Development NGOs - Fingo
- Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
- Finnish Women´s Association Unioni (Naisasialiitto Unioni ry)
- Finnwatch ry
- FLC CGIL
- Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V.
- France Amérique latine FAL
- GLAN | Global Legal Action Network
- GREI 250
- Helsinki Pride Community
- Human Rights Watch
- Humanitas - Centre for Global Learning and Cooperation
- INTAL
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- International Media Support
- International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
- Intersindical Valenciana
- Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- ISCOD SINDICALISTAS SIN FRONTERAS
- Istituto Italiano di Ricerca per la Pace – Corpi Civili di Pace
- Jeunes FGTB
- Judeus pela Paz e Justiça
- Kommunal, Swedish Municipal Worker's Union
- La Cimade
- medico international
- Mladí zelení, z.s.
- Mondiaal FNV
- Movimento pelos Direitos do Povo Palestino e pela Paz no Médio Oriente - MPPM
- MUNDUBAT
- Ne naším jménem! - Za spravedlivý mír na Blízkém východě
- Netzwerk Ökumenisches Begleitprogramm in Palästina und Israel in Deutschland e.V
- Nuorten mielenterveysseura - Yeesi ry
- Olof Palmes Internationella Center
- Organizacija za participatorno družbo
- Oxfam
- OZ Prirodzene
- Palestina Solidariteit vzw
- Palestina.lt
- PAX
- pax christi Diözesanverband München und Freising
- pax christi Dt. Sektion e.V.
- Pax Christi Flanders
- Pax Christi International
- Pax Christi Italia
- Paz con Dignidad
- Peace Institute, Ljubljana
- PIC - Legal Center for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment
- Plan International
- Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine
- PROJA Institut
- Proti dehumanizaci
- Red Universitaria por Palestina (RUxP), ES.
- REF- Réseau Euromed France
- Réseau Euromed France
- RESEAU FEMINISTE "RUPTURES" FRANCE
- ResQ - People Saving People
- Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo
- Rete Ricerca e Universita' per la Palestina, Italy
- Sadaka-the Ireland Palestine Alliance
- Saplinq, o.z.
- Seta LGBTQI+ Rights Finland
- Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT)
- Sindikat Mladi plus (Trade Union Youth Plus)
- Slovene Philanthropy
- SOLIDAR
- SOUTIEN BELGE OUTRE-FRONTIERES - SB OVERSEAS
- Sumud - the Finnish Palestine Network
- Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
- The Finnish League for Human Rights
- The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
- The National Council of Women of Finland
- The Rights Forum
- Trans ry / Trans Association
- UGT
- Umanotera
- Un Ponte Per (NGO)
- Union syndicale Solidaires (France)
- United Against Inhumanity (UAI)
- UnPontePer
- Vida Justa
- Viva Salud
- Vrede vzw (Belgium)
- Vredesactie
- VSS FF UL (Visokošolski sindikat Slovenije - sindikalna celica Filozofske fakultete v Ljubljani
- Weltfriedensdienst e.V.
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
- ZASUK - sindikat za ustvarjalnost in kulturo
- Zavod Tri / Three Institute
- Zavod za podporo civilnodružbenih iniciativ in multikulturno sodelovanje Pekarna Magdalenske mreže Maribor