We, the undersigned, oppose the dangerous Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations and the related attempts by some US politicians to use the TTIP process to restrict freedom of political expression and campaigning in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

TTIP, currently being negotiated between the European Union and the USA, would see an unprecedented transfer of power to corporate interests and represents a serious attack on democracy, social standards, workers’ rights and environmental regulations. It would lead to irreversible privatisation and fragmentation of public services and would seriously undermine measures to protect the environment.

Also deeply worrying are the secrecy and lack of democracy that are key features of the negotiations, and the proposed Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which would allow multinational corporations to sue governments in a parallel judicial system available to them alone.

As organisations opposed to any EU-US trade treaty that does not serve the public interest, we are gravely concerned about the introduction of legislation in the US Congress that, if passed, would use TTIP to clamp down on human rights campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The proposed US-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act, presented to Congress on 10 February 2015, would make any trade agreement between the EU and the USA conditional on the willingness of the EU and its member states to repress action against Israel’s illegal settlements and its occupation of Palestinian territory.

Under the terms of the proposed Act, European governments would become obliged to take steps to monitor and discourage governments, companies and civil society campaigns engaging in boycotts, divestment and other forms of non-violent pressure aimed at holding Israel accountable for its on-going occupation and violations of international law.

The proposed Act explicitly aims to protect Israel’s illegal settlements from accountability measures, despite the fact that the EU and the UN consider Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law. It has also spawned a series of other legislative interventions in the USA, including an amendment that was successfully included in the Trade Promotion Authority bill adopted by the Senate Finance Committee on 23 April 2015, which seeks to grant President Obama ‘fast track’ authority over trade negotiations.

The proposed legislation is a response to the growing success of Palestine solidarity campaigns across Europe and the USA. If passed, the proposed Act would require the EU to reverse existing measures already taken in recognition of its obligations under international law. This includes the ending of preferential treatment for exports coming from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank, and the implementation of guidelines preventing EU public funds from being awarded to such settlements.

The EU has also taken action to warn businesses against having economic relations with illegal Israeli settlements; major European banks have divested from Israeli banks and corporations due to their role in Israeli violations of international law; and large European companies such as G4S and Veolia are being held accountable for their participation in the infrastructure of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.

In the wake of Israel’s 2014 attack on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 2,200 people and included deliberate attacks on civilians that amounted to war crimes according to the UN and other bodies, people around the world came out in numbers to express support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. We will not accept any legislative attempt to silence these expressions of solidarity.

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