The European Union and its member states should condemn Israeli authorities’
crimes against humanity of apartheid and
persecution during the EU-Israel Association Council
meeting on October 3, 2022, Human Rights Watch said
today. The EU and its member states should also press Israeli
authorities to end the crackdown on Palestinian civil
society.
“European officials should know they’ll be shaking hands with
representatives of a government committing crimes against
humanity and that has outlawed prominent civil society groups
challenging these abuses,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and
Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “Pretending it’s
business as usual with Israel amid escalating repression sends
the message that EU condemnation is worth little more than the
paper it’s written on.”
The EU-Israel Association Council is a forum aimed at
facilitating political dialogue and strengthening cooperation
with Israel. The last Association Council meeting was held in
2012 and further gatherings were paused after Israeli authorities
objected to the EU’s position regarding West Bank
settlements.
Several Palestinian, European,
and international nongovernmental
organizations, as well as 47 Members of the European
Parliament, have raised serious concerns around the
Association Council meeting.
The agreement that
established the EU-Israel Association Council identifies respect
for human rights as an
essential element. The Association Council is set to reconvene
amid a growing consensus within the
international human rights movement that Israeli authorities’
severe repression of Palestinians constitutes apartheid.
The meeting also comes just weeks after Israeli authorities
raided and ordered the closing of the offices of seven prominent
Palestinian civil society organizations, some of which receive
funding from the EU and its member states. Israeli authorities
moved to shutter the Palestinian rights groups
despite statements by the
EU and a number of its member
states dismissing their allegations against the
organizations
For years, the EU and its member states have responded to Israeli
authorities’ serious abuses by repeating empty platitudes about
the long-moribund “peace process” and the need to revive
prospects for, “a two-state solution.” This approach overlooks
the reality of apartheid and persecution on the ground and leads
the EU and its member states to fail to take the human rights
measures that a situation of this gravity warrants, Human Rights
Watch said.
In August, 49 Palestinians in Gaza, including 17 children, were
killed during another round of
hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed
groups. Israel’s 15-year-long closure of
Gaza has deprived its more than 2 million residents of
opportunities to better their lives and devastated the economy,
with 80 percent of the
population now reliant on humanitarian aid.
In the occupied West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli authorities have killed more
than 80 Palestinians in 2022, a six-year high. Those killed
include the journalist Shireen Abu Aqla. As of
September 1, Israeli authorities also held more than 700
Palestinians in administrative detention without
trial or charge, the highest number since 2008.
Despite these developments, the EU apparently did not demand any
action by the Israeli authorities to end abuses ahead of the
Association Council. These could have included Israeli
authorities reversing their decision to outlaw prominent Palestinian
civil society groups, easing the Gaza closure, or releasing
Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian human rights defender,
from months-long administrative
detention.
In a media interview in August 2022, Alon Liel, the former
director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said: “As long as the
Europeans don’t take concrete measures on the diplomatic,
security and economic level, Israel doesn’t give a damn. It feels
very confident that this anti-human rights behavior will have no
cost politically in the international arena.”
When the UN Human Rights Council established an inquiry
in May 2021 to investigate abuses and identify the root causes of
the conflict, all EU member states either
abstained or voted against it, in stark contrast with
their consistent voting record in support of accountability
mechanisms in other contexts.
“The decades-long European failure to take action in the face of
grave human rights abuses has emboldened Israeli authorities to
brazenly escalate their repression of Palestinians,”
said Claudio Francavilla, EU
advocate at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of reciting empty
platitudes, European officials should use the Association Council
to finally condemn Israel’s apartheid and persecution and make
clear there will be meaningful consequences should the Israeli
government not reverse course.”
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Israel and
Palestine, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/israel/palestine
