A prominent U.K. legal expert recently released a report stating that the European Union would be within its legal rights if it chose to ban products made in West Bank settlements, British newspaper the Guardian reported on Monday.
James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, presented a 60-page opinion to senior officials of EU member states in the past few months according to which the states were within their legal rights to ban the import of produce from West Bank settlements according to European and international law.
Crawford's paper argues that member states acting to ban settlement produce could do so under the EU-Israel Association Agreement provision, stipulating that the agreement "shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles."
He further argues that banning trade with the settlements isn't a breach of World Trade Organization agreements because "as a matter of international law, the West Bank and Gaza cannot be considered to be Israel's territory."
The Trades Union Congress, which has been calling for a boycott of settlement produce but has opposed, banning trade with Israel, will publish the paper this week. more
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