The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH)
with members in 23 European countries, expresses its profound alarm at the ongoing failure of European governments and institutions to fulfil their obligations under international law in response to the catastrophic and deliberate starvation campaign being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the continuing and accelerating annexation by Israel of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) including the West Bank and East Jerusalem
ELDH demands that European governments and institutions act in accordance with their fundamental international legal obligations by taking, without delay, the following concrete actions:
- Use all available means to secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to ensure the urgent, unconditional and unimpeded resumption of aid, at scale, to the population of Gaza;
- Use all available means to secure the lifting of Israel’s ban upon the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) throughout the entire OPTs;
- Impose financial and immigration sanctions in relation to Israeli Ministers and other civil and military personnel reasonably suspected of involvement in unlawful conduct; Israel’s May 2025 plan – the implementation of which began on 16 May 2025– is to forcibly and permanently displace the population of Gaza to small areas of the Gaza Strip, and coerce their emigration to other countries, in grave violation of international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law.