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Page last updated
June 15, 2008
Understanding the conflict
The EU and Israel-Palestine
OverviewA summary of EU policy towards Israel will be found here on the Europa website.
(a) "The EU-Israel Association Agreement forms the legal basis governing relations between Israel and the EU, modeled on the network of Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Agreements between the Union and its partners in the southern flank of the Mediterranean Sea. The agreement with Israel incorporates free trade arrangements for industrial goods, concessionary arrangements for trade in agricultural products (a new agreement here entered into force in 2004), and opens up the prospect for greater liberalisation of trade in services, and farm goods, from 2005. The Association Agreement was signed in Brussels on 20 November 1995, and entered into force on 1 June 2000, following ratification by the 15 Member States parliaments, the European Parliament and the Knesset. It replaces the earlier Co-operation Agreement of 1975. A Protocol has been concluded which amends the Agreement to accommodate the enlargement of the Union to 25 Member States in May 2004.
"In line with the new generation of Association Agreements between the EU and its Mediterranean partners, the preamble emphasises the importance of the principles of the United Nations Charter, in particular the observance of human rights, democratic principles and economic freedom. Respect for human rights and democratic principles constitute an essential element of the Agreement."
The full text of Article 2 of the Agreement reads as follows:
'Relationships between the parties, as well as the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes and essential element of this Agreement.'For further information
For the full text of the EU-Israel Agreement
For a JfJfP call to action on the Agreement (mid-2004)Jean Ziegler, UN special rappoteur prepared a report The Right to Food based on his mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, published in October 2004, which revealed widespread malnutrition and food insecurity in the OPTs, resulting from the occupation. In advance of its publication, Ziegler called for the suspension of the Association Agreement: "There is only one possible weapon to fight for the right to food. That’s article two of the contract of association between Israel and the European Union,” he told journalists.
In late 2005 the EU Heads of Mission in Ramallah and East Jerusalem produced a report regarding Israeli state actions towards non Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, which the EU suppressed. Over 40 Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian anti Occupation groups decided to publish the suppressed EU Report on their websites.
There are often reports by European Parliament delegations on the current situation - here is one from 2nd June 2008 - Also, see the letter from the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, objecting to any plan for the European Union to upgradeits relationship with Israel, including in the political and economic spheres, due to be considered at the Council meeting on 16 June.
(b) There are also agreements on Scientific and Technical Co-operation between the European Community and the State of Israel
"Israel's partnership with the EU on research and technical development began with the Fourth Framework programme in August 1996, and continued with the EU's 5th Framework Programme (1999-2002), and the 6th Framework Programme for 2003-2006... The Framework Programmes permit Israeli universities, research institutes and companies to participate in hundreds of research projects with their European counterparts."
(c) The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) carries out work on antisemitism and hasbeen involved in some controveries in the area. For relevant documentation on this see section J: Antisemitism on this website.
1.The European Union - Israel Association Agreement: An Introduction
Aprodev, the Association of World Council of Churches related Development Organizations in Europe, produced a very helpful analysis and critique of EU policy in this 2002 study.
Aprodev has a very helpful website with information about initiatives coordinated by the Aprodev
2. A Human Rights Review on the EU and Israel – Relating Commitments to Actions, 2003-2004
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), December 2004
EMHRN is a network of 80 Arab, European, Israeli and Turkish human rights organisations, institutions, and individuals committed to universal human rights and based in more than 20 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Read the press release accompanying this report
The conclusions of the report are summarised in the executive Report as follows:
- Israel implements its agreements with the EU in violation of general international law, and in violation of the agreements themselves. The EU has repeatedly chosen not to prevent this.
- To the extent that the EU has addressed questions of international law, the positions that have been taken have been consistent and legally correct, although in the EU’s declarative diplomacy on matters relating to Israel, few if any affirmative references could be found to those elements of international law that assign general responsibilities to states relative to the illegal acts of third states.
- In addition, a review of several key elements of the EU’s operative diplomacy, including its contractual relations with Israel, reveals a striking lack of coherence with the EU’s legally correct declarative diplomacy.
- The EU may have actually facilitated Israel’s violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by deferring to them in its own dealings with Israel. The review presents several instances where Israel’s implementation of its agreements with the EU has been based on its rejection of its key international obligations as an occupying power, and as a state of all its citizens. The EU can not knowingly allow its contractual relations with any third country to operate in this manner without itself violating European Community law and international law.
3. Europe and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Professor Avi Shlaim St Antony’s College Oxford
October 2004
c. 2,700 words
Shlaim concludes: 'The case for an active EU role in promoting a genuine two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is thus overwhelmingly strong from every conceivable angle. It would serve Israel’s best long-term interest by ending its occupation of another people and by enabling it to channel its energies towards more constructive ends. It would assist the Palestinians in realising their long-denied aspirations to independence and statehood. It would help the moderate Arab states, all of whom have been destabilised by the violence of the second intifada. Last but not least, it would remove one of the main sources of Muslim rage against the West and thus help the West in the conduct of the global campaign against terror. In all these different ways, a European initiative would not be a selfish act but a desperately needed contribution to the resolution of one of the most protracted and bitter conflicts of modern times, to regional stability, and to international order.
If ever there was a time for Europe to stand firm, it is now; and if ever there was a cause on which to stand firm, it is this one.'
4. EU Financing to Palestinian Authority
EP internal report April 2006Abstract: After an introduction the note gives information about:
- Distribution of EU aid by sectors (2005)
- Aid to Palestinian areas financed on the EU General Budget 2000 - 2005
- The recent EU financial Aid package of 121 M€
- Enquiry into possible fraud and use for terrorist acts
- Controlling and reporting.Full reference is and the full reference is:
IPOL/D/BSU/NT/2006_009 11/04/2006
N° PE 371.722 EN
(located on the intranet at http://www.ipolnet.ep.parl.union.eu/ipolnet/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/bss/notes/Palestine_en.pdf5. Open letter on the occasion of the Association Council between EU and Israel, 5th March 2007
'The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) expresses concern about the situation of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)...
As a network of more than 80 human rights NGOs based in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, we have monitored and condemned violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the past months and years...
We would like to remind of the responsibility of the international community, and especially the EU, towards a just, lasting and peaceful solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, based on international law, including international human rights and humanitarian law.'6. Comments on the possible upgrading of the EU-Israel Association Agreement
Arthru Goodman for JfJfP, 10 June 2008
