Preparations for the implementation of Israel’s new demise penalty regulation have already begun. Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has boasted {that a} new jail wing is beneath building the place the killings will happen, and new “pink” uniforms for the Palestinian prisoners have already been ordered.
In the meantime, the worldwide “condemnations” have ceased. Like others, the European Union, which prides itself on excessive human rights requirements, continues to look away. That is even though its Affiliation Settlement with Israel has a transparent clause that calls for respect for human rights.
Official reactions have been nothing wanting disgraceful.
When the invoice was cleared by the Nationwide Safety Committee of the Knesset late final month, EU spokesperson for overseas affairs, Anouar El Anouni, described the measure as “deeply regarding” and affirmed the bloc’s opposition to the demise penalty in all circumstances.
But, in the identical assertion, the EU praised Israel’s supposed “earlier principled place, with its obligations beneath worldwide regulation, in addition to its dedication to democratic ideas”. It’s as if Israel had by no means carried out a brutal decades-long occupation, unlawful colonisation and genocidal campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. The assertion then “inspired” Israel to fulfill the EU’s circumstances on human rights beneath the EU-Israel Affiliation Settlement.
On March 30, simply earlier than the ultimate vote on the invoice, European international locations, together with the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” in regards to the invoice, with out warning of any concrete steps.
On March 31, after the invoice was handed, the EU launched one other assertion recycling its speaking factors, including solely that the measure represented a “grave regression” of Israel’s personal commitments and practices – a declare that straight contradicts findings from EU investigations, worldwide and Palestinian United Nations our bodies, human rights organisations and the December 2024 and July 2024 advisory opinions of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.
There was no point out of the Palestinian folks, who’re focused by this regulation or the Palestinian prisoners who’ve suffered brutalisation and demise at unprecedented ranges prior to now two and a half years. There was no acknowledgement of the struggling of the households of Palestinian detainees.
My family reacted with a mixture of heartbreak and bitter familiarity when the invoice handed. We have been sickened, however not shocked. My father was a freedom fighter in his youth and spent 14 years in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation earlier than being launched in a prisoner change. I couldn’t assist however think about my father’s story unfolding in in the present day’s actuality.
He could be one of many many Palestinian political prisoners awaiting execution after a ruling from a army courtroom that finds 99 p.c of Palestinian defendants “responsible”. He could be punished for merely rejecting colonial domination, for standing up for his rights and the rights of his folks. And in in the present day’s actuality, the very establishments that declare to characterize me and all European residents, within the identify of democratic values and human rights, could be complicit in permitting his execution.
It is very important notice that the EU’s stance is neither stunning nor a diplomatic mistake. It’s one more affirmation that the EU’s professed dedication to human rights ends the place Israel’s impunity begins.
The distinction is very stark when put next with the EU’s place in direction of different allies and adversaries. It has repeatedly condemned using the demise penalty in Iran, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and not too long ago, in Russian‑occupied Donetsk. In every of those instances, the EU has clearly linked the demise penalty to broader violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation and the Geneva Conventions, and to the broader contexts during which every case is discovered.
The hypocrisy turned much more placing when the choice was made to pause discussions on sanctions and the revision of the EU-Israel Affiliation Settlement after the US-brokered so‑referred to as “ceasefire” in Gaza in October 2025.
Since then, Israel has continued to defy worldwide regulation and violate human rights, increasing its occupation to over 50 percent of Gaza’s territory, advancing settlement building in occupied Palestinian land, banning and attacking UNRWA amenities constructed with EU funds, expelling worldwide humanitarian NGOs from the Gaza Strip, forcibly displacing tens of hundreds within the occupied West Financial institution, and a whole bunch of hundreds in Lebanon, and Iran, and shutting down entry to holy websites in Jerusalem. The well-documented listing of violations solely continues to develop.
However the EU can now not ignore them as a result of European residents are more and more rejecting Israeli impunity.
Multiple million Europeans have signed the petition of the European Residents’ Initiative (ECI) “Justice for Palestine”, calling for the total suspension of the EU-Israel Affiliation Settlement, making it the fastest-growing ECI up to now. This demand has additionally been endorsed by over 60 human rights and humanitarian organisations, in addition to greater than 350 former diplomats.
The EU can’t proceed to float farther from each its authorized obligations and the clear calls for of its folks. It should act decisively. On the Overseas Affairs Council on April 21, a number of European states will once more put the suspension of the EU-Israel Affiliation Settlement on the desk. That is now not a technical debate. It’s a take a look at of political will.
The remainder of the EU member states face a easy alternative: act, or stay complicit. Something wanting suspension is a failure to uphold EU regulation, a betrayal of its said values, and a dismissal of the rising public demand throughout Europe to finish Israeli impunity and ship justice for the Palestinians.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
