PALESTINIAN human rights organisation Al-Haq has written to the European Union urging it to ban trade with and support for illegal settlements established by Israel in the occupied territories.

The letter was sent to the high representative of the European Commission, the executive vice-president and European commissioner for trade, and EU member states with diplomatic representatives in the occupied Palestinian territory.

It called for the neoliberal trading bloc to support the “principled initiative” of 46 MEPs in calling for the trade ban, condemning Israel for its repeated rights violations against the Palestinian people.