Brussels, Monday 29 April 2024 – Today, The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) launches the Stand For International Law! Vote Palestine!”campaign to encourage European citizens to vote in the upcoming European Parliament elections scheduled between 6-9 June 2024. MEP candidates elected to the European Parliament will shape and influence the direction of the European Union for the next 5 years.
On January 26 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. The ICJ also issued six provisional measures, ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza. Since the ruling, the situation has further deteriorated. Over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, over 1.7 million people are displaced, 93 percent are facing crisis levels of hunger. As the ICJ ruling has broader implications for all States – all are obligated both to refrain from committing genocide, and to prevent and punish it wherever it occurs – we are launching the “Stand For International Law! Vote Palestine!”campaign. The goal of the campaign is to help European citizens to vote for those candidates who best represent the interests of European citizens who are concerned about respecting and upholding Palestinian rights and the principles of justice and human rights. By signing our pledge European candidates are committing themselves to work for the implementation of international law and relevant UN resolutions as well as for the ICJ rulings during their mandate, and act during their mandate, upon what millions of European citizens have been calling for since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza – accountability and justice.
To promote transparency, accountability, and alignment with citizens’ concerns in such important issues like the implementation of the highest world court rulings, the campaign encourages candidates to sign a pledge outlining their parliamentary actions concerning Palestine if elected.
A key feature of this campaign is a special go to website, where European citizens can directly send a message to all their candidates requesting them to sign the Stand for International Law! Vote Palestine! pledge. The website will provide the list of MEPs who have pledged their support, in order to allow EU citizens to take informed decisions during the elections.
About ECCP: The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) was founded in 1986 as a network of European committees, organisations, NGOs and solidarity movements, dedicated to the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, justice and equality. ECCP in its work is trying in its work to challenge EU complicity with Israel’s ongoing violations of International Law and Palestinian rights. We coordinate political actions, grassroots campaigns and debates at the European level, highlighting the ways in which the EU, despite its many verbal condemnations, continues to fund Israeli companies and institutions that are directly involved in the maintenance of the Israeli regime of apartheid, colonialism and occupation.