Just In: ‘Goods over humans’: EU condemned for failure to suspend Israel trade deal
Human rights experts, including Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research and advocacy, have accused the European Union of “knowingly enabling” Israel’s “grave violations” after two EU countries blocked a move to suspend a trade agreement between the trading bloc and Israel.
“The EU’s failure to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel is a damning betrayal of its own values,” Rosas wrote in a post on X after Germany and Italy blocked a move put forward by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to suspend the deal.
“Given the overwhelming evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, maintained an apartheid system against Palestinians, and unlawfully occupied their territory, inaction becomes a deliberate choice,” Rosas added.
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, also condemned the decision.
“Maintaining trade in times of genocide means valuing goods over humans,” she said in a post on X.
“Markets over life,” she added.
Before Germany and Italy stopped the bid on Tuesday, more than 60 human rights organisations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, had called on the EU and member states to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/22/iran-war-live-trump-says-ceasefire-extended-as-talks-with-tehran-in-limbo?update=4512088
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