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LONDON: The EU’s refusal to suspend its association agreement with Israel is a “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of European values, the head of Amnesty International has said.

Agnes Callamard’s statement came after the bloc decided against suspending the agreement, dashing hopes that the EU would take a unified stand against Israel’s war in Gaza and its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal — of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians,” she said.

“European leaders had the opportunity to take a principled stand against Israel’s crimes, but instead gave it a greenlight to continue its genocide in Gaza, its unlawful occupation of the whole Occupied Palestinian Territory and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”

EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to review 10 options for potentially suspending the agreement, in full or in part.

These included a full suspension, a pause on preferential trade and research, a weapons embargo, sanctions on Israeli ministers, and ending visa-free travel for Israeli citizens to Europe. However, ministers opted against taking any of the options.

Callamard said: “The EU’s own review has clearly found that Israel is violating its human rights obligations under the terms of the association agreement.

“Yet, instead of taking measures to stop it and prevent their own complicity, member states chose to maintain a preferential trade deal over respecting their international obligations and saving Palestinian lives.

“This is more than political cowardice. Every time the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows.

“This sends an extremely dangerous message to perpetrators of atrocity crimes that they will not only go unpunished but be rewarded.”

Amnesty International, in a statement after the EU decision, highlighted the precedence of international law over EU and national law.

Last July, the International Court of Justice described Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories as illegal.

EU members must take measures to act based on that opinion under international law, Amnesty said.

“Victims are entitled to far more than empty words,” Callamard said. “Member states must now take matters into their own hands and unilaterally suspend all forms of cooperation with Israel that may contribute to its grave violations of international law, including a comprehensive embargo on the export of arms and surveillance equipment and related technology, and a total ban on trade with and investment in Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has warned about the consequences of imposing Israeli settler control over the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron city, south of the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday.

The ministry said that Israel’s decision to transfer the management of the mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, to a settlement council is “an unprecedented move to impose control over it, Judaize it, alter its identity, and a blatant violation of international law and UN resolutions.”

Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the Israeli Civil Administration, which operates under the Ministry of Defense and governs the West Bank, has transferred the management and supervision of the Ibrahimi Mosque from the Hebron municipality to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement.

The ministry called on UNESCO, which had designated the Ibrahimi Mosque as a World Heritage site in 2017, to urgently intervene and halt the implementation of this plan.

Tayseer Abu Sneineh, mayor of Hebron, stressed that “the transfer of the powers of the Ibrahimi Mosque administration (to the settlement’s religious council) is an assault on the civilization of the city and a blatant violation of international law.”

Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli Civil Administration, officially known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, has not yet officially handed over the decision to the city’s municipality.

He said that Israeli violations of the Ibrahimi Mosque’s sanctity began shortly after the city and West Bank were occupied in 1967, when settlers held a collective wedding at the site.

“We reject the decision in full, and consider it a political, cultural and religious aggression against the city of Hebron,” Abu Sneineh told Wafa news agency.

Sheikh Moataz Abu Sneineh, director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, said they have not received official notification about the transfer of administration powers, emphasizing that the mosque is a purely Islamic site and part of Islamic endowment property.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is in Hebron’s Old City, where about 400 settlers are protected by around 1,500 Israeli soldiers and surrounded by numerous military checkpoints.

Since 1994, Israel has spatially divided the Ibrahimi Mosque into 63 percent for Jews and 37 percent for Muslims, after a massacre by an extremist settler that killed 29 Palestinian worshipers at the site.