Brussels: Human Rights Watch has urged the European Union (EU) and its member states to condemn Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution during the EU-Israel Association Council meeting on October 3.
According to Human Rights Watch, the EU and its member states should also press Israeli authorities to end the crackdown on Palestinian civil society.
"European officials should know they’ll be shaking hands with representatives of a government committing crimes against humanity and that has outlawed prominent civil society groups challenging these abuses," said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, in a media release on Friday.
"Pretending it’s business as usual with Israel amid escalating repression sends the message that EU condemnation is worth little more than the paper it’s written on," Shakir added.
The EU-Israel Association Council is a forum aimed at facilitating political dialogue and strengthening cooperation with Israel.
The last Association Council meeting was held in 2012 and further gatherings were paused after Israeli authorities objected to the EU’s position regarding West Bank settlements.
Several Palestinian, European, and international nongovernmental organizations, as well as 47 Members of the European Parliament, have raised serious concerns around the Association Council meeting.
The agreement that established the EU-Israel Association Council identifies respect for human rights as an essential element.
The Association Council is set to reconvene amid a growing consensus within the international human rights movement that Israeli authorities’ severe repression of Palestinians constitutes apartheid.
The meeting also comes just weeks after Israeli authorities raided and ordered the closing of the offices of seven prominent Palestinian civil society organizations, some of which receive funding from the EU and its member states.
In August, 49 Palestinians in Gaza, including 17 children, were killed during another round of hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.
Israel’s 15-year-long closure of Gaza has deprived its more than 2 million residents of opportunities to better their lives and devastated the economy, with 80 percent of the population now reliant on humanitarian aid.
In the occupied West Bank, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli authorities have killed more than 80 Palestinians in 2022, a six-year-high.
Those killed include the journalist Shireen Abu Aqla.
As of September 1, Israeli authorities also held more than 700 Palestinians in administrative detention without trial or charge, the highest number since 2008.
"The decades-long European failure to take action in the face of grave human rights abuses has emboldened Israeli authorities to brazenly escalate their repression of Palestinians," said Claudio Francavilla, EU advocate at Human Rights Watch.
"Instead of reciting empty platitudes, European officials should use the Association Council to finally condemn Israel’s apartheid and persecution and make clear there will be meaningful consequences should the Israeli government not reverse course," Francavilla added.
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