Council of Europe: Cancel economic agreement with Israel

The Council of Europe held "an urgent debate on the situation in the Middle East" on Thursday and decided to recommend that the European Union suspend its economic agreement with Israel.

The Council also decided to call on the EU to impose an arms embargo against Israel, due to allegations of human rights abuses in the territories.

A small number of Council members protested the decisions against Israel, including representatives from Hungary, France, and Germany.

In the meantime, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met Thursday with foreign ministers Ismail Cem from Turkey and George Papandreou from Greece in the Palestinian leader's Ramallah headquarters, where he is under siege by Israeli forces.

Norway has already decided to prohibit military procurement from Israeli companies. R.B. Tec, a developer of electronic surveillance systems based in Ramat Hasharon, received a letter Wednesday from the Norwegian Defense Ministry explaining that the company could not compete for a Norwegian Army tender due to the situation in the Middle East.

There have been several cases of European countries canceling or suspending export permits for military components to Israel, but the Norwegian decision marks the first instance of a European country imposing a boycott on military procurement from Israel due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.