A petition calling on the European Union to suspend a trade agreement with Israel has racked up more than one million signatures.
Set up in January, the Justice for Palestine petition hit the one million signatures mark this week, making it the fastest initiative to do so since the direct democracy mechanism was introduced in 2007.
The initiative, put forward by the European Left Alliance (ELA), calls on the EU to fully suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement due to “Israel’s genocide, occupation, and apartheid against the Palestinian population, and its ongoing violations of international law and human rights.”
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By hitting one million signatures, the petition must now be considered by the European Commission who will decide whether to take action.
The campaign also gathered enough signatures to meet the required national threshold in ten EU member states, three more than the seven required.
The agreement between the EU and Israel was signed in 2000 and gives the country preferential trade treatment with the bloc. This includes significantly lower tariffs.
The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, with €42.6bn worth of trade in goods between the two sides in 2024 alone.
Catarina Martins, co-chair of the European Left Alliance, said: “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.
“The EU is allowing Israel not only to continue its genocide against Palestinians, but to economically profit from it as well.”
Here in the UK, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called on the UK’s trade deal with Israel to be scrapped following the nation’s strikes on Lebanon.