Belgian police has confirmed that it intends to question former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni at her arrival in Brussels today for suspected war crimes. Livni is listed as a speaker  at a European Parliament event taking place later today. However it is no longer clear whether Livni will participate in the event as her name has been removed from the official event website.

Two Dutch political parties are calling for sanctions on Israel for its ongoing violations of Palestinian rights.

At its national congress on 16 April, the liberal party D66 – short for Democrats 66 – called on its lawmakers to promote European Union demands that Israel halt its construction of settlements on occupied lands as well as other violations of human rights.

As Israel is increasingly unable to defend its regime of apartheid and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people and its regular massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, it is seeking supportive governments in Europe and the US to undermine free speech as a way of shielding it from criticism and measures aimed at holding it to account for its gross violations of international law.

On September 18 the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament is set to vote on a new trade agreement with Israel.

The development of the EU-Israel relations, based on the exploratory work started by the European External Action Service in May 2010, will be discussed at meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council, which will take place on July 24th.

Last year, in February, the EU and Israel committed, despite the freeze of the upgrade, to further explore the opportunities offered under the current Action Plan and to pursue technical talks in order to identify areas for future cooperation.

The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) is pleased to be able to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day by announcing that the European Union has declined to renew a contract with private security company G4S amidst concerns raised by MEPs and campaign groups about the role the company plays in equipping Israeli prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners are held in violation of international law.

G4S has provided security services to the buildings of the European Parliament since 2008 but the contract award notice (service contract 118611-2012) published o