Occupied Palestine, 13 July 2025 -- The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society at home and in exile and the leader of the global BDS movement, calls for widespread popular pressure to cancel the participation of the Palestinian government representative in the so-called "Southern Neighbors" meeting in Brussels. This normalizing meeting, which brings together representatives of the European Union, the Israeli Foreign Minister, and several representatives of Arab regimes, aims to legitimize the continuation of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which has led to a full partnership in the genocide and ethnic cleansing of our Palestinian people.
At a time when the Israeli regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation is standing trial at the International Court of Justice for genocide in Gaza, continues to use starvation and blocking all humanitarian aid as weapons of war, is escalating its brutal ethnic cleansing and gradual annexation of land in the occupied West Bank, and is carrying out wars of aggression against our brothers and sisters in Lebanon and Syria, we see this as a dangerous attempt to rehabilitate this regime and impose formal normalization with it.
This meeting is being held one day before the European Union member states are expected to vote on reviewing the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The EU's invitation to a representative of the Palestinian government, partially funded by Europe, and representatives of unelected Arab regimes is a blatant attempt to provide Arab fig leaves to cover up the complicity of the EU and most of its member states in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. European states continue to provide military, financial, trade, academic, diplomatic, and media support for Israel’s genocide. The EU needs Arab fig leaves, particularly Palestinian ones, to appease the wave of popular anger and mounting pressure from European peoples and civil society to terminate or suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Arab, including Palestinian, participation in this shameful meeting with apartheid Israel’s foreign minister, despite the clarity of the meeting’s objectives, goes beyond normalization to complicity with the EU in its relentless attempts to evade its legal obligations to sever all commercial, diplomatic, financial, academic, and other relations with Israel that contribute to its genocide or the continuation of its regime of military occupation and apartheid, as affirmed by the decisions of the International Court of Justice and as stated by dozens of UN human rights experts.
The BDS movement considers the participation of any Palestinian official in this meeting as also an attempt to legitimize official Arab normalization and the participation of some authoritarian Arab regimes rushing toward betrayal of Palestinians, normalization with Israel, and the denial of Palestinian rights.
The international movements in solidarity with Palestinian liberation, with BDS at their core, are impressively galvanizing people power globally to pressure states to impose lawful sanctions on the genocidal Israeli regime. These sanctions include comprehensive military and energy embargoes; canceling free-trade agreements; expelling Israel from international fora; ending its impunity; and severing diplomatic, academic, cultural, and other ties with its regime of occupation and apartheid. At a time when the BDS movement, along with its European partners, is pressuring EU states to terminate the Association Agreement with the criminal Israeli regime, such meetings are aimed at rehabilitating the image of genocidal Israel, saving it from its growing international isolation, and entrenching its impunity.
In light of this, the BDS movement calls for:
- Popular pressure on the Palestinian government and Arab governments to boycott this shameful and complicit Brussels meeting.
- Intensifying pressure on the European Union to fulfill its legal obligations, which include, as priorities:
- Immediately terminate the EU-Israel Association Agreement and impose lawful sanctions on Israel for its commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
- Stop financing Israeli crimes against our people, whether directly or indirectly, and ban all economic, commercial, academic, and other relations that contribute to the perpetuation of Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid.
- End the complicity of European companies, banks, and investment funds in supporting and profiting from Israeli crimes, as stated in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese.
- Impose a comprehensive military embargo on Israel, including the import, export, and transit through EU territories, airspace, and ports of all military materiel, including dual-use items.
No to Arab or Palestinian fig leaves to cover up the European-Israeli partnership in the genocide of our people and the perpetuation of Israel’s regime of settler colonialism, military occupation and apartheid! No genocidal regime will be accepted in our “neighborhood.”
We stand united in insisting on our inalienable rights, foremost among them liberation, self-determination, and the right of our refugees to return to their lands and receive reparations.