Brussels says no plan to suspend EU-Israel pact

The European Union does not intend to suspend its association agreement with Israel, an official said Friday after a UN human rights expert called for the EU to punish the Jewish state.

The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said in Geneva Thursday that the 2000 association agreement laid out respect for human rights as an 'essential condition'. (Click the link to see what a Jew-hating nutcase Jean Ziegler is. - EoZ)

But he said that Israel was abusing the accord, which sets out the framework of its trade and political relations with the EU, by violating Palestinians' right to food.

'There are no plans to suspend the association agreement,' a spokeswoman for the EU's executive commission, Emma Udwin, told reporters in response to Ziegler's appeal.

'But in all our council (ministerial) conclusions and contacts with the Israelis, we are stressing the need to act within the bounds of international law, to respect human rights and to avoid any impact on civilians,' she said.

The EU has often been highly critical of Israeli action in the occupied territories such as house demolitions, checkpoints and disruption of EU-funded aid projects.

Ziegler said the Israeli military was 'producing a humanitarian food crisis' among the Palestinians. (Just curious what he thinks of Darfur - EoZ)

According to a report that the official is due to present to the UN General Assembly next week, 22 percent of children in Palestinian territories are gravely malnourished, and half of the Palestinians are dependent on food aid.

'Grave violations of the right to food have been recorded, they are clear. This (EU) accord must be suspended,' he said.