Brussels (QNN)- France and Sweden have co-signed a paper urging the European Union to ban imports from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and to consider tariffs and tighter import restrictions on such goods.
An internal paper setting out France and Sweden's position, first reported by The Irish Times and Politico, said the EU “should take stronger action to limit commercial engagement with illegal settlements”.
The governments in Paris and Stockholm said Israel’s policy of expanding the settlements was undermining the future of a two-state solution.
“We therefore call on the [European] Commission to urgently consider the legal and practical feasibility of introducing measures such as tariffs on settlement products and import restrictions through export licences,” the paper said.
The two countries said a total import ban on settlement goods could be justified, due to the “deteriorating situation”.
Goods and imports from occupied Palestinian territories are not covered by the terms of an EU-Israel free trade deal.
Separately, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have said there is an “urgent” need for the EU to credibly respond to Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and human rights.
An April 17th letter from the foreign ministers of the three staunchly pro-Palestinian states said the EU can “no longer remain silent or inactive”.
Human rights organizations and campaigners have long called for the association agreement to be suspended, in light of Israel’s human rights abuses in Gaza.
“In such a grave situation, we call on the European Union to uphold its moral and political responsibility, and to defend the very core values that have underpinned the European project since its foundation,” the letter said. It was sent to Kaja Kallas, the EU’s representative on foreign affairs who chairs the minister-level meetings.
They said the approval of the death penalty by the Israeli parliament for Palestinians and Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank are violations of fundamental human rights.
The letter also cited Israel's mass displacement of Lebanese amid its recent assault.
The Irish Government has separately committed to pass a national law, the Occupied Territories Bill, which would prohibit the sale of goods from Israeli settlements.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said this week during a rally in Andalusia, “A government that violates international law or European Union principles and values cannot be our partner.”
Spain will formally propose the termination of the agreement at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday in Luxembourg.
During a news conference Monday, following a meeting about a two-state solution for the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas said that the bloc would assess whether it was possible to move forward with measures against Israel, which include a potential suspension of the EU’s cooperation agreement as well as proposals for sanctions on hardline Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, following Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s defeat in the April 12 election.
“I will not speak for the new government [of Hungary] but definitely we can look into all these policies and see if they have a new approach,” Kallas told a news conference following the gathering on Palestine.
Orbán had been the sole holdout on tougher action towards Israel. But Hungary’s incoming Prime Minister Péter Magyar has signaled he could lift the block on some sanctions efforts. Magyar has also warned he would order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s sought by the International Criminal Court over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, if he were to enter Hungary.
Germany, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic and several other states resisted efforts to penalize Israel, forming a blocking minority that headed off any EU sanctions.
Suspending the EU-Israel trade deal would require the backing of a large majority of member states, rather than unanimous agreement. That would mean Italy or Germany would most likely need to lift their opposition to such a move to approve the trade sanction.
A European Commission proposal in September that came amid the genocide in Gaza to sanction some Israeli ministers and suspend trade-related sections of the association agreement failed to reach a majority in the European Council.
