Joint statement of the European Left Alliance ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council of 21 April 2026.

20 April 2026, Luxembourg.

In less than three months, the European Citizens’ Initiative Justice for Palestine, put forward by the European Left Alliance, has crossed the threshold of one million signatures. It has also surpassed the required national thresholds in 11 Member States – four more than the minimum of seven required under EU rules.

This is the loudest democratic mandate the European Union has received on its foreign policy in years, and it leaves the Foreign Affairs Council with no excuse to delay any longer.

On 21 April, foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg. They will once again be tempted to hide behind procedural fog and the comfortable shrug of qualified-majority or unanimity arithmetic.

Let us be clear: another Council without action is another Council of complicity with genocide, occupation and apartheid.

Israel continues to wage a genocide in Gaza, intensified illegal annexation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and unleashed strikes on Lebanon that killed more than 2000 people since 2 March.

These are not isolated incidents. They are systematic, documented violations of international humanitarian law, human rights, and of Article 2 of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, which makes respect for human rights an essential element of EU cooperation. The Commission’s own May 2025 review confirmed it. Over 350 former EU ministers, ambassadors, and senior officials, including former High Representative Josep Borrell, have just confirmed it again. More than 60 humanitarian and human rights organisations and trade unions demanding the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement have confirmed it. The European citizens have now confirmed it one million times over.

The European Left Alliance demands that the Council immediately fully suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement.

History will judge this Council. The citizens of Europe have spoken. It is time for the Foreign Affairs Council to listen or to admit that European values stop where Israeli impunity begins.

Link to sign the ECI: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#/screen/home