Ayhan Simsek
11 June 2026•Update: 11 June 2026
- ‘Response from European community and international community so far has been very insufficient and in fact has had no impact,†Callamard tells Anadolu
- She calls on EU, Germany in particular, to shift policy by suspending EU-Israel trade agreement to pressure Israeli government to end war crimes and violations of international law
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, has sharply criticized the EU for turning a blind eye to Israel's “ethnic cleansing†policies against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Speaking to Anadolu, Callamard said most European governments have issued only statements expressing concern about attacks by Israeli occupiers or new settlement plans, without taking concrete steps that would compel Israel to halt the violations.
“What we are documenting are a litany of violent acts which amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, including killings, including torture, including attacks,†she said, adding that violence by extremist Israeli occupiers against Palestinians has reached alarming levels.
“It’s a litany of crimes being committed in order to erase everything Palestinian from this land, in order to allow for the expansion of Israeli settlement and Israeli outposts,†she stressed.
“It is truly a state project. The annexation, the forcible transfer, the ethnic cleansing is state-led, state-sanctioned, state-implemented.â€
Callamard said European governments should stop treating the violence as a series of isolated incidents and instead confront what she described as a broader pattern — including the role of Israeli state actors — in a “historical project†aimed at reshaping the West Bank's demographics.
“The response from the European community and the international community so far has been very insufficient and in fact has had no impact,†she said, adding that sanctions on a handful of extremist individuals or politicians have been largely symbolic — failing to change conditions on the ground or slow the pace of settlement expansion.
Call for ‘systemic response’
Callamard called on European governments to agree on stronger, coordinated measures that could have a real impact on the Israeli government, including economic and diplomatic steps that go beyond statements of concern.
“What we need is a systemic response which begins with cancelling the EU-Israel association agreement and adopting unilateral measures at the European state level to ban all trade, all financial relationships to and from the occupied territory,†she said, also calling for an end to any military support.
Callamard also sharply criticized Germany for its blanket support for Israel. She said Berlin repeatedly cites a historical responsibility to guarantee Israel's security – rooted in Germany's Nazi past and the Holocaust – to justify its stance.
She warned that the German government's continued diplomatic, economic and military backing for Israel risks making it complicit in crimes and violations of international law under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
“What should Germany do? It should just do the opposite. It has to use its so-called special relationship to put an end to what is happening and to say, as a friend, I cannot keep justifying or supporting what is happening,†she said.
Callamard also referred to recent public polls showing that a majority of Germans believe Israel is committing genocide and do not support the Merz government's foreign policy toward Israel.
“The German authorities also need to listen to their own people,†she said.
“The majority of the German people, according to several polls, have shown that they have a very unfavorable view of what is happening right now. They need to take stock of that and they need to act on the messaging from their own people as well.â€
