A petition calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel has passed one million signatures – the fastest initiative to reach that milestone since the EU’s direct democracy mechanism was introduced in 2007 – forcing the European Commission to now formally consider whether to take action against the bloc’s largest single trade partner in the Middle East.
The Justice for Palestine petition, set up in January by the European Left Alliance, calls on the EU to “fully suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement” due to what it describes as “Israel’s genocide, occupation, and apartheid against the Palestinian population, and its ongoing violations of international law and human rights.”
The campaign gathered enough signatures to meet the required national threshold in ten EU member states – three more than the seven required for the petition to trigger formal consideration by the Commission.
What the Association Agreement is – and what is at stake
The EU-Israel Association Agreement was signed in 2000 and gives Israel preferential trade treatment with the bloc – most significantly, significantly lower tariffs on exports. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner. In 2024 alone, trade in goods between the two sides was worth €42.6 billion.
Suspending the agreement would represent one of the most significant economic measures any major power has taken in response to events in Gaza. Unlike sanctions, which target specific individuals or sectors, suspension of the Association Agreement would affect the entire bilateral trade relationship – including civilian goods, technology, agriculture and financial services.
The European Commission is now required to consider the petition following the one million signature milestone. It is under no obligation to act on it, but it must formally examine the request and respond. The Commission has consistently resisted calls to suspend the agreement, arguing that trade ties and diplomatic engagement serve long-term peace interests better than economic isolation.
What the campaigners say
Catarina Martins, co-chair of the European Left Alliance, was direct in her assessment of the current situation. “Israel mass kills civilians, destroys vital infrastructure, and has recently passed a death penalty law targeting only Palestinian political prisoners, yet the EU rewards Israel by maintaining its privileged trade agreement,” she said.
“The EU is allowing Israel not only to continue its genocide against Palestinians, but to economically profit from it as well.”
The petition represents a significant shift in the scale of public engagement with the Israel-Palestine question in Europe. Reaching one million signatures faster than any previous EU citizens’ initiative suggests the level of public feeling across the continent has reached a threshold that is increasingly difficult for the Commission to ignore.
The UK dimension
In Britain, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called on the UK government to scrap its own trade deal with Israel following the country’s strikes on Lebanon.
The UK’s bilateral trade agreement with Israel – which was rolled over from the EU deal following Brexit – has attracted growing scrutiny as the conflict has continued. Polanski’s Greens have been the most consistent parliamentary voice in calling for meaningful economic measures against Israel, with the party backing recognition of Palestinian statehood, an end to arms sales, and now the suspension of trade deals.
The Labour government has resisted calls to go that far, maintaining that diplomatic engagement and arms export restrictions – rather than trade deal suspension – represent the appropriate policy response. That position has contributed to the party’s continuing difficulty in winning back voters who feel it has not gone far enough on Gaza.
The broader context
The petition arrives at a moment of heightened international focus on the legal framework around the conflict. The International Court of Justice has been asked to consider whether genocide is taking place. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for senior Israeli figures. And the Iran war has complicated the diplomatic picture further, with some Western governments more reluctant to take actions that could be seen as destabilising a region already at war.
But the pace at which the EU petition reached its milestone – and the breadth of national support across ten member states – suggests that public opinion in Europe has moved considerably ahead of where the major Western governments currently stand. What the European Commission decides to do with a petition that has broken the record for the fastest-ever million signatures will be one of the more significant political tests of the EU’s stated commitment to human rights as a condition of its preferential trade relationships.
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