\n<\/p>\n
In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the three governments say Israel is violating \u2018human rights\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spain, Slovenia and Ireland have urged the European Union to debate suspending its association agreement with Israel, saying the bloc can no longer remain \u201con the sidelines\u201d as conditions worsen in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.<\/p>\n Speaking before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the three countries had formally requested that the issue be placed on the agenda.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cSpain, along with Slovenia and Ireland, has requested that the suspension of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel be discussed and debated today,\u201d Albares said.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect every European country to uphold what the International Court of Justice and the UN say on human rights and the defence of international law. Anything different would be a defeat for the European Union,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In a joint letter sent last week to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the three governments said Israel had taken a series of measures that \u201ccontravene human rights and violate international law and international humanitarian law\u201d, adding that it breached the 1995 agreement that outlines political, economic and trade relations between the EU and Israel.<\/p>\n They said repeated appeals to Israel to reverse course had been ignored.\u00a0The ministers pointed to a proposed Israeli law that would impose the death penalty by hanging on Palestinians convicted in military courts, describing it as \u201ca grave violation of fundamental human rights\u201d and a further step in the \u201csystematic persecution, oppression, violence and discrimination\u201d faced by Palestinians.<\/p>\n They also cited the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions there were \u201cunbearable\u201d, with continuing violations of the ceasefire agreement and insufficient aid entering the territory.<\/p>\n The letter warned that violence in the occupied West Bank was also intensifying, with settlers acting \u201cwith absolute impunity\u201d alongside ongoing Israeli military operations, causing civilian deaths.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Union can no longer remain on the sidelines,\u201d the ministers wrote, calling for \u201cbold and immediate action\u201d and saying all options should remain on the table.<\/p>\n The three countries argued Israel was in breach of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which ties relations to respect for human rights.\u00a0An earlier EU review had already found Israel was failing to meet those obligations, they said, adding that the situation had deteriorated further since then.<\/p>\n During a donor conference in Brussels, Kallas said the estimated cost of rebuilding Gaza had risen to $71bn.<\/p>\n Ireland and Spain first pushed for a review of the agreement in 2024, but the effort failed to win enough backing from member states supportive of Israel. A later Dutch-led initiative succeeded in triggering an EU assessment, which concluded Israel had \u201clikely\u201d breached its obligations under the pact.<\/p>\n Possible trade measures, including suspending parts of the relationship, were later discussed but not implemented after Israel pledged to significantly increase humanitarian aid entering Gaza.<\/p>\n Ireland is also seeking to revive its Occupied Territories Bill, first introduced in 2018, which would ban trade in goods and services from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the West Bank. Progress has stalled despite unanimous backing in the lower house of parliament, the Dail.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Spain and Slovenia have moved to curb trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank following sustained public protests and growing political pressure. In August last year, Slovenia banned imports of goods produced in Israeli-occupied territories, becoming one of the first European states to take such a step.<\/p>\n Spain followed later that year with a decree banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements, with the measure coming into force at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n All three countries formally recognised the State of Palestine in May 2024, in what was widely seen as a coordinated diplomatic move aimed at increasing pressure for a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, the three governments say Israel is violating \u2018human rights\u2019. Spain, Slovenia and Ireland have urged the European Union to debate suspending its association agreement with Israel, saying the bloc can no longer remain \u201con the sidelines\u201d as conditions worsen in Gaza, the occupied West Bank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Occupied Territories Bill<\/h2>\n
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