In an exchange with the press on Thursday 20 February, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (OXFAM) called on the European Union to take specific measures regarding Israel ahead of the Association Council meeting scheduled for Monday 24 February, in order to guarantee the application of international law in Gaza and the West Bank.
In this way, the voice of the confederation joins those of other NGOs who expressed similar demands the day before (see EUROPE 13583/20).
While any suspension of the association agreement – as desired by some in civil society – requires unanimity among the Member States, Martin Konečný, director of the European Middle East Project (EuMEP), insisted that “stopping trade only requires a qualified majority”.
The large number of ministers expected to attend the meeting, which will take place in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council, “is an opportunity for the Member States to individually demand that the commitments of the [Association] Agreement be respected”, he said.
Pleading in support of “the ceasefire and a Palestinian reconstruction effort”, OXFAM spokesperson Bushra Khalidi demanded that human rights should not be applied only when “politically convenient”. “Palestinians cannot afford any more empty words”, she said. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)