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 [1] 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. [2] 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 [Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1484, 8 September 2021, recital 11), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32021D1484&from=EN.]]; 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 [3] in order to discourage all trade with settlements (as Norway has done [4]) 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,

163 signatures

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 Italy
ACV-CSC Belgium
Anti-Zionst Jewish Alliance in Belgium (AJAB)
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
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)
Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses - Intersindical Nacional (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 Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT)
Confédération générale du travail (CGT)
Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL)
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
FGTB-ABVV
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
HuSoMe
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
No Name Kitchen
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
Stichting Kifaia
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 des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique (UPJB)
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