On June 23, 2025, the foreign ministers of EU member states are scheduled to consider the status of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the central framework for trade and political cooperation between the European Union and Israel since 2000. The timing is notable, as Israel is in the midst of a historic war against nuclear Iran, is under continuous ballistic missile barrages, and Europe’s role in this part of the wider regional conflict is unclear. 

As with many other anti-Israeli initiatives inspired by NGO manipulation, this review, which would potentially cost both Europe and Israel billions in cooperation and academic partnerships, is presented under the human rights façade. It follows a review of Article 2 of the agreement, which conditions the partnership on respect for human rights and democratic principles, by High Representative/Vice-President of the Commission Kaja Kallas. An 8 page “report” put together by the EU’s External Action Service is framed by EU officials as a response to what they describe as a “breach of its [Israel’s] human rights obligations under Article 2.” The text repeats the litany of biased and distorted accusations against Israel, citing UN agencies and ICJ provisional rulings which, in turn, are largely based on the EU’s network of pro-Palestinian advocacy NGOs. 

The current NGO campaign seeking to damage the EU-Israel Association Agreement is neither new nor solely a reaction to the October 7th conflict. Rather, it reflects a longstanding, politically motivated effort by these NGOs to instrumentalize EU policy as a tool to isolate Israel.  As detailed below, since 2004, these anti-Israel NGOs claiming to promote human rights have pressed for the  suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement as a prime goal of their BDS strategies. For pro-BDS NGOs, the attempt to isolate Israel is central, regardless of the severe economic, technological, and security damage to Europe.  

Examples:

Examples of earlier NGO campaigns against the Association Agreement

  • In 2004, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (now Euro-Med Rights; signatory of the June 19, 2025 statement)an ideological advocacy NGO led by Palestinians with  alleged links to Hamas, published a report titled: “The EU and Israel: Mainstreaming Human Rights into the EU’s Political and Trade Relations with Israel.” Twenty-one years ago, this NGO already targeted Article 2 of the Association Agreement and advocated for conditioning EU-Israel relations.
  • In 2008, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), along with allied European groups such as LPHR (UK), PAX (based in the Netherlands), War on Want (UK), and Palestine Solidarity Campaign, called for “the suspension of the Agreement altogether,” criticizing proposed upgrades and future renewals. In their statement, they argued: “Instead, [the EU] has voted now to upgrade relations without respecting its own stated human rights conditions, effectively rewarding Israel and granting it full impunity for its war crimes in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.”
  • In 2014, a group of Palestinian NGOs mainly funded by European governments — including PCHR, DCI-P, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, BADIL, PNGO, UPWC, AIC, Health Work Committees — sent an open letter to the EU foreign policy head calling for the suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel.
  • In 2016, the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine (Plateforme des ONG Françaises pour la Palestine) launched a public appeal calling on the EU to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel. The NGOs argued that through the agreement—particularly the political, economic, and military cooperation it enables—the EU was effectively endorsing Israel’s violations of international law.
  • In 2017, to mark 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, over 250 European civil society organizations, NGOs, trade unions, and political parties signed a joint statement coordinated by the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), calling on the European Union to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
  • In 2022, PFLP linked Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement), Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other aligned groups, marched to the European Parliament in Belgium calling “to end the EU-Israel Association Agreement and kick the occupation regime out of EU bodies and agreements.”