Al-Haq sent letters to the High Representative of the European Commission, the Executive Vice President and  European Union Commissioner for Trade, and the member states of the European Union with diplomatic representatives in the occupied Palestinian territories, welcoming and calling on them to support the principled initiative of the 46 MEPs, representing most of the European Parliament’s political groups, to ban trade with, and support for, illegal settlements established in occupied territories. The letters stressed the role that the EU played in opposing rampant human rights violations committed in defiance of international law. Moreover, the letters reminded the EU and its Member States of their legal obligations under common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, which stipulates that the High Contracting Parties “undertake to respect and ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.” Besides, the letters urged the EU and its Member States to support the present proposal and to take the necessary and important step in recognising that the illegality of the settlement enterprise, and its perpetuation, extends both to the unlawful appropriation of land, and to the commercial products whose manufacture is reliant on the unlawful exploitation of that land. To check the news, click here