Forud for EU's udenrigsministermøde tirsdag skrev Amnesty International et åbent brev til udenrigskoordinator Josep Borrell og EU udenrigsministrene. I brevet opfordrer Amnesty EU til bl.a. endelig at kræve våbenhvile og standse våbenleverancerne til terrorstaten Israel. Brevet er desværre spildte guds ord på Balle Lars. Med ganske få undtagelser (Irland) bakker EU's medlemsstater op om folkemordet i Gaza, og har pga. bestemmelserne i Konventionen mod Folkemord gjort sig medskyldige i folkemordet.

Amnestys anbefalinger er:

• Publicly demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire by all parties in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel. We share the view of 153 states and majority of UN bodies that a ceasefire is the only way to save lives, address the humanitarian crisis and facilitate the return of civilian hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip;
• Put public pressure on the state of Israel to immediately lift its illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, including by ensuring that adequate food, water, fuel and medical supplies, as well as humanitarian aid, communications and electricity are available to all residents;
• Maintain calls for Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release all civilian hostages and ensure that they are treated humanely in line with international law;
• Call for Israel to release arbitrarily detained and enforced disappeared Palestinians;
• All those deprived of their liberty must be humanely treated at all times.
• Commit to supporting the ICJ’s critical independent adjudication of South Africa’s application and request for provisional measures, by refraining from any form of political statement which may delegitimize the Court in its ongoing judicial assessment and genuinely commit to respecting any order which may be made on provisional measures in the case;
• Publicly denounce violations by all sides to the rules of international humanitarian law, naming them, including the prohibition of direct attacks on civilians and on civilian objects, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, collective punishments, hostage-taking, abduction of civilians and violations of the right to life and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment and of enforced disappearance in Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and in Lebanon;
• Call on Israeli authorities to cooperate with international investigative bodies and observers, including the ICC, the UN Commission of Inquiry, UN special Rapporteurs and bodies and international media, by granting them unfettered access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in order to investigate crimes committed by all parties to the conflict;
• Unequivocally, unconditionally and publicly support the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), by ensuring that the ICC has the political, diplomatic and financial support it needs to carry out its mandate;
• The EU must recognize the root causes of the conflict in order to play a constructive role in any “day after” discussions, by acknowledging the reality of the Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians and banning trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank;
• Refrain from supplying arms to Israel, given that serious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law amounting to crimes under international law are being committed.