Brussels (UNA/KUNA) - The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, proposed on Friday to the European Union member states to suspend dialogue with the Israeli occupation and impose a ban on the import of products originating from Israeli settlements, which he stressed are "illegal."
Borrell added in a statement that he asked the European Union's human rights representative to assess the Israeli occupation government's compliance with the partnership agreement with the European Union, and to present this assessment to the Foreign Affairs Council (European foreign ministers) meeting next week when Borrell presents these proposals to them.
Borrell continued that based on this assessment, “he will propose to the European Union countries to suspend political dialogue” with the Israeli occupation, noting that his proposal to ban imports from Israeli settlements comes based on the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, “which is similar to the current ban on products from the occupied Ukrainian territories... because justice is the fundamental pillar of Europe’s credibility.”
Borrell also stressed that the European Union cannot continue to deal with matters as usual, after a year of unanswered appeals from the Israeli occupation authorities regarding respect for international law in the Gaza war.
"The European Union must admit that the approach it has followed throughout the year" with the Israeli occupation government "has failed," he added.
Borrell stressed that the Israeli occupation's failure to respect international humanitarian law "undermines the foundation on which the European Union was built, which is the rule of law to protect the weak from the strong."
The European Union's foreign affairs chief warned of a deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, where the north of the Strip has been completely evacuated of its more than one million residents after several weeks of heavy bombardment that destroyed the last remaining health centres, shelters and schools.
Borrell added that "the few images circulating from there show a barren land that is almost a scene from the end of the world," noting that it was no coincidence that the term "ethnic cleansing" was increasingly used to describe what was happening in northern Gaza.
Borrell also criticized the failure to allow journalists or international observers to enter Gaza for more than a year, noting that “it is the longest period of media ban ever imposed.”
Borrell also condemned the Israeli occupation's aggression against Lebanon and the assault on Palestinians in the West Bank, and the talk of officials in the Israeli occupation government about a "new Nakba," stressing that their "illegal and immoral ideas have begun to become a reality."
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