EU complicit
EU role in sustaining illegal Israeli settlements exposed in report
QPSW has joined with twenty-two other non-governmental organisations across Europe to launch a report, entitled Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements.
The report, which has a foreword by the former EU commissioner for external relations, Hans van den Broek, highlights inconsistencies in European Union policy towards the settlements. On one hand EU high-level statements have repeatedly made clear that the settlements are illegal and constitute an obstacle to peace. Yet on the other, hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of settlement goods are imported by Europe every year.
Trading Away Peace calls on European governments to adopt a range of economic measures designed to stop assisting settlement expansion. Recommendations include introducing a ban on the import of settlement goods, the exclusion of settlements from bilateral and EU level cooperation agreements and the introduction of measures to prevent financial transactions being made in support of the settlements.
