Denouncing attempts at intimidation and threats against them, more than 1500 staff members of European Union institutions and bodies drew up, in mid-April, a list of actions that the EU should take, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to comply its obligations under European treaties and international (humanitarian) law in its relations with Israel, which they accuse of enjoying “special treatment” bordering on immunity in the war that Israel is officially waging against the Islamist terrorist organisation Hamas and in its settlement policy in the West Bank.
Otherwise, the EU institutions run the risk of being accused of “complicity” in the crimes committed by Israel, says the non-political EU Staff for Peace.
In their memorandum, the staff members call for: - recognition of the State of Palestine; - the deployment of an EU mission to protect civilians in all the occupied Palestinian territories; - the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement; - a ban on trade relations with the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem; - an embargo on arms exports to Israel; - the end of bilateral cooperation in EU research programmes; - a legal analysis of the options available to the EU for holding Israel to account for infrastructure destroyed in the occupied Palestinian territories and financed by European funds; - the publication of the names of European companies contributing to the Israeli occupation; - communicate internally on the EU’s obligations to comply with international law.
See the ‘EU Staff for Peace’ memorandum: https://aeur.eu/f/h7x (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)