{"id":460118,"date":"2026-07-15T18:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/15\/justice-for-palestine-si-chiude-la-raccolta-firme-per-la-sospensione-dellaccordo-ue-israele\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T18:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:32:03","slug":"justice-for-palestine-the-petition-calling-for-the-suspension-of-the-eu-israel-agreement-has-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/15\/justice-for-palestine-the-petition-calling-for-the-suspension-of-the-eu-israel-agreement-has-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"“Justice for Palestine”: the petition calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel agreement has closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 More than a million signatures calling for the suspension of the trade agreement between the European Union and Israel. The European Left Alliance for the Peoples and the Planet (ELA) organised an event in Brussels today (15 July) to mark the end of the petition drive for the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative: \u2018Justice for Palestine, Stop EU trade with criminals\u2019<\/a> (Justice for Palestine, stop the EU\u2019s trade with criminals). The campaign officially closes<\/a> tonight at 23:59.<\/p>\n

 Launched by ELA on 13 January 2026, Justice for Palestine calls on the European Union to completely suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement<\/a> due to \u201cIsrael\u2019s genocide, occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people and its ongoing violations of international law and human rights.\u201d According to ELA, this is the initiative that has reached one million signatures and the minimum threshold of six Member States the fastest since it was registered. By early this afternoon, the initiative had reached almost 1.3 million signatures from thirteen countries. <\/p>\n

“This petition is a tribute to those fighting to put an end to this genocide, such as the students and activists who, through their protests, have decided not to turn a blind eye,” reiterated the French MEP from the La Gauche party, Manon Aubry<\/strong>, who stressed that \u201cover the last three years, the European Commission has done nothing to stop Israel\u201d apart from proposing an option paper which the MEP described as a \u201cjoke\u201d. Aubry is also <\/span>Vice-Chair of the Parliament\u2019s Committee on International Trade and explained that once the deadline for signatures closes tonight, the verification process will begin. Each Member State will have two months to carry out the verification and, once it has been confirmed that the one million threshold has been exceeded or reached, the Commission must submit a response within six months<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The co-chair of ELA, Catarina Martins<\/strong>, pointed out that, in addition to The Left, other parties in the European Parliament had also shown their support for the initiative, including the Socialists<\/a> and the Greens<\/a>. She also pointed out that the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel \u201cshould already have been suspended.\u201d  Article 2 of the text stipulates that respect for human rights and democratic principles is an essential element of relations between the two parties. If either party violates these rules, the agreement provides for the possibility of suspending it. Martins also emphasised that \u201cthe matter does not end here,\u201d as it is necessary to continue \u201cexerting public pressure\u201d given that the Commission and governments \u201care not responding to the demands of their citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n

The MEP from The Left, Isabel Serra S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>, pointed out that the initiative is \u201cthe very least we can do in the face of the genocide being suffered by the Palestinian people,\u201d with the Gaza Strip experiencing a destruction rate of \u201c90 per cent.\u201d On this point, the MEP from The Left, Hanna Gedin<\/strong>, highlighted the impact of the Israeli attacks on children, whose \u201cchildhood has been replaced by suffering.\u201d She then bluntly addressed the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, <\/strong>and the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson<\/strong>: \u201cYou knew, but you decided to do nothing\u201d and \u201chuman rights only apply when they are politically convenient.\u201d <\/p>\n

The European Citizens\u2019 Initiative is an instrument<\/a> introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon <\/b><\/a>that enables citizens to ask the European Commission to propose legislative acts or other measures within its areas of competence. In 1995, the EU concluded an Association Agreement with the State of Israel to facilitate and expand trade, provide a framework for bilateral political dialogue, and promote scientific, technological, and cultural cooperation. With over 34 per cent of Israel\u2019s imports coming from the EU and 28.8 per cent of Israeli exports going to the EU, the Union is Israel\u2019s main trading partner. In 2024, total trade in goods between the EU and Israel amounted to \u20ac42.6 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will end tonight at 11.59 pm and calls on the European Union to sever relations on the grounds of \u201cIsrael\u2019s genocide, occupation, and apartheid against the Palestinian people and its ongoing violations of international law and human rights\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":460095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25871,25794,25890,25815,32287,32011,30469,28463,26864],"class_list":["post-460118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-7-ottobre-en","tag-accordo-associazione-ue-israele-en","tag-cease-fire-gaza-en","tag-the-left-en","tag-accordi-commerciali-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460119,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118\/revisions\/460119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}