The Regavim movment and its Director General, Meir Deutsch, have filed a motion in the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg, demanding the complete annulment of sanctions imposed on them by the Council of the European Union last May.
According to Regavim, this marks the first legal challenge filed by an Israeli organization or citizen against European sanctions.
Last May, the European Council adopted restrictive measures against four entities and three individuals under the European Union’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. The Council said then that ‘’those listed are extremist Israeli settlers and organisations which support them, and are responsible for serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, including abuse of the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental integrity, the right to property, the right to private and family life, to freedom of religion or belief and the right to education.’’
The decision followed a political agreement reached at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
Among the organisartions listed by the Council was the NGO Regavim and its director Meir Deutsch. ‘’Regavim and its leadership lobby for the demolition of Palestinian property with the aim to expand the control of Israel to the whole West Bank and institute legal proceedings to that end. The organisation also lobbied for the demolition of an EU-funded Palestinian primary school at the Jabbet al Dhib village, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank,’’ The Council said in its decision.
According to Regavim, the proceedings against these sanctions are being led by a senior international legal team headed by attorney Salomé Lemasson of the Paris Bar and Jerusalem-based attorney Nicholas Kaufman.
‘’The appeal sharply criticizes the evidentiary file compiled by the European Union against Regavim, arguing that it reflects a serious lack of professional rigor and relies on publications by media outlets and organizations affiliated with the radical left,’’ the grouop said.
As one example, Regavim points to the demolition of a school in the village of Jubbet ad-Dhib, saying it was wrongly attributed to the organization when the demolition was carried out by Israeli state authorities under a Jerusalem District Court order due to the building’s risk of collapse.
Regavim argues the use of sanctions itself ‘’is an anti-democratic practice imposed without hearing or due process’’, and says the sanctions bar EU citizens from donating to or supporting its work while prohibiting business relations with European-registered companies, including banks, credit card firms and payment processors.
“The European Union has created an embarrassing legal smokescreen to persecute a legitimate civil-society organization simply because it publicly criticizes the EU’s illegal actions,” Deutsch said. He said the appeal aims both to reverse the economic damage caused by the sanctions and to push back against what he called a European effort to intimidate civil society as part of broader support for a Palestinian state.
The General Court of the European Union is a constituent court of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. It hears actions taken against the institutions of the European Union by individuals and member states, although certain matters are reserved for the European Court of Justice.