A group of NGOs have called on Foreign Minister Ian Borg to support the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement at the upcoming EU Meeting of Foreign Ministers next week. 

The agreement, which entered into force in 2000,  provides a legal and institutional framework for political dialogue and economic cooperation between the EU and Israel. 

In a letter, the groups told Borg that they are lobbying for the suspension of this agreement in light of the “catastrophe” in Palestine and Israel’s “continued human rights violations”. 

In a statement, the groups said that Israel’s decades-long occupation and apartheid policies in Palestine are in clear contravention of international law. 

“These policies have culminated in the Gaza genocide, marked by the killing of one child every ten minutes, the unprecedented killing of journalists, the deliberate destruction of the healthcare system, the abduction of 450 medical workers, and the displacement of nearly two million people,” they said. 

“The United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have also documented escalating violations of human rights in the Palestinian Territories.”

The groups are lobbying for the suspension of the agreement because it explicitly binds both parties to the observance of human rights and democratic principles. 

The organisations pointed out that the agreement’s “essential elements” clause, in conjunction with Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, enables the EU to suspend or terminate the agreement in response to violations.

The letter was signed by Ġustizzja għall-Palestina, Moviment Graffitti, The Watermelon Warriors, Youth for Palestine, The Lebanese Advocates, Maltese National Youth Council (KNŻ), The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, Aditus Foundation, Humanists Malta, Dance Beyond Borders, PEN Malta, Spark 15, Young Progressive Beings (YPB) and Blue Door Education.