The role of the European Union in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue: Towards an engagement based on respect for international law and human rights.

Abstract

This thesis consists in a legal analysis of the involvement of the European Union (EU) in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Its object is to investigate whether the EU in its policies directed at Israel and the Palestinians helps fostering, entrenching or decreasing the commission of violations of international law which result from the occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territories. After having offered an in-depth analysis of the content of Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the obligation to cooperate to put an end to a violation arising under a peremptory norm of international law, the obligation not to recognise and the obligation not to aid and assist, the thesis offers a legal framework based on an empirical approach to international law in order to explain how international actors can contribute to the commission or the perpetration of violations of international law. It further details the objectives of the EU in its external relations to promote respect for international law and human rights. The thesis proceeds with an investigation of the diplomatic involvement of the EU in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue and the relations between the EU, Israel and the Palestinians taken individually. It analyses how violations of international law which derive from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories interfere in the implementation of these relations and how the EU reacts to this interference. The thesis concludes that the EU is incrementally acquiescing in the violations of international law which result from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, is giving incentives to the perpetuation of this situation, and is also breaching its commitment to base its relations with Israel and the Palestinians on respect for human rights. It ends by offering recommendations for a better-directed involvement of the EU with Israel and the Palestinians.