Global charity Oxfam has criticised the EU after the Foreign Affairs Council failed to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, saying discussions without action are "meaningless."
"Discussions without action are meaningless. We have seen this pattern before – talk, delay, repeat," Agnes Bertrand Sanz, Oxfam humanitarian expert, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sanz said Israel continues to kill, wound and displace people, adding: "What is needed now – and has been for a long time – is the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement."
"What more evidence does the EU need? The reality is on the news and on our social media every day," she said, stressing that if this is not enough to act, then the clause is "decoration, nothing more."
She said political will and pressure are needed to break the current EU deadlock "driven by some EU countries," adding that if the bloc cannot reach consensus, capitals should explore all options to suspend their engagement with Israel.
"Failing to do so is complicity," she warned.
Speaking at a news conference after a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said some member states proposed a full or partial suspension of the agreement, as well as restrictions on trade from settlements.
She noted that some member states opposed the proposals.
"Given that the suspension of the association agreement needs unanimity, there was no support for this needed in the room," Kallas said.
European countries remain divided on trade ties with Israel, with Spain and Ireland pushing for suspension while Germany and others oppose the move.
Israeli violations
In its press release, Oxfam mentioned Israel's violations that are expanding within the Middle East, including ceasefire violations in Gaza, aggression against Lebanon and the expansion of the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
It also cited the death penalty recently approved by the Knesset against Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has killed over 72,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in its genocide in Gaza since October 2023.
It has reduced most of the enclave to ruins and displaced all of its population,
In Lebanon, Israel has killed nearly 2,300 people and wounded 7,544 others since March 2, while also displacing over 1 million people.
