At a press conference held in Brussels on Tuesday 13 January, theEuropean Left Alliance for the People and the Planet announced the launch of a European citizens’ initiative to stop European trade with Israel, in the context of the conflict in Gaza.
Entitled ‘Justice for Palestine, Stop EU Trade with Criminals’, the initiative aims to collect one million signatures in order to “legally force” the European Commission to decide on at least a partial suspension of the EU/Israel Association Agreement.
In September 2025, the Commission partially responded to this request by proposing to suspend the abolition of tariffs on goods provided for in the agreement (see EUROPE 13711/1). MEP Manon Aubry (The Left, French) pointed out that this was an initiative announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her State of the European Union address to the European Parliament.
Likening the “European Union’s hypocrisy” regarding Israel to “complicity in genocide” Nicola Fratoianni, leader of the Italian Left Party, also called for concrete action, deploring the fact that “international law is dying at the same time as the Palestinians”.
See the citizens’ initiative: https://aeur.eu/f/k8f (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)