Patrick Costello sees much hand wringing with minimum action from Brussels
Often, it is harrowing photos that change policy by forcing a sea change in public opinion that governments cannot resist. Think of the 2015 photo of the dead Syrian child, Alan Kurdi, lying on the beach in Greece and how the reaction persuaded Angela Merkel to decide to allow Syrian refugees to enter Germany en masse. Think of the way in which the 1968 photo of the naked children being shot in the back by US GIs transformed US policies in Vietnam. The photos of dead and starving children coming out of Gaza in recent weeks have started to generate a similar pressure to act. They certainly seem to have pushed Keir Starmer over the line to make the conditional decision to recognise Palestine in September.
And yet, in Brussels, those in power are continuing to wring their hands while doing the absolute minimum in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It sometimes feels as though their objective is to be Pontius Pilate: ensure that the killing can continue while publicly salving their consciences. The EU is no bystander here. Leaving aside the arms supplies from several Member States, the EU also has a wide-ranging association agreement with Israel that provides the Israelis with preferential access to European markets and lucrative access to many of the EU’s programmes. As a result, the EU is Israel’s largest trading partner. Crucially, the agreement has a human rights clause allowing for its suspension in the case of serious human rights violations by either party. Suspending it would force the Israelis to sit up and listen in the same way as the world does to Trump’s tariff announcements: by directly impacting the economy. So, it is profoundly depressing that the growing calls for suspension of the agreement have so far fallen on too many deaf ears.
In May, the Dutch, historically among the closest allies of Israel, formally requested an urgent review of whether the Israelis were in violation of their human rights obligations under the agreement. They were supported by 16 other Member States, making it impossible for the Commission to avoid doing it. Their review, issued to Member States in late June and then leaked, timidly confirmed that there were “indications” that Israel was in breach of its human rights obligations in its actions in Gaza. Foreign Ministers then took several weeks to consider the review before failing, on 15 July, to reach a consensus on taking any action. Just before they discussed it, the Israelis had made a humanitarian “agreement” with the EU to allow unimpeded flows of aid into the Gaza Strip. Little changed on the ground, but it was sufficient to muddy the waters of the ministerial discussion.
Two days later, a group of French and Belgian jurists filed a case at the European Court of Justice against the Commission and the Council under an article of the Treaty that allows EU institutions to be challenged for not fulfilling their legal obligations. By this point, photos from the Gaza famine were beginning to emerge, and 11 days later (28 July), in what looked like a direct response, the Commission issued a weak and minimalist proposal to suspend Israel’s participation in military-linked projects under its Horizon research programme. Member States proved not even able to agree on this, with Germany and Italy the biggest obstacles.
All that is left now is to continue to put political and legal pressure on the Commission and on the Member States to act. EU staff continue their weekly lunchtime protests outside the EU buildings. Dozens of former EU Ambassadors have written twice in July asking for stronger action from the EU, including suspension of the EU-Israel agreement. On 11 August, former MEP and regular Chartist contributor Glyn Ford organised a letter signed by over a hundred former MEPs from 18 countries, including two former European Parliament Presidents and covering the entire political spectrum. The letter called for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy supremo Kaja Kallas to make a proposal to fully suspend the agreement. The letter also warned that “failure of Member States to agree to such a proposal would expose their complicity in this war crime”. Many of those who signed were among those who had used their mandates to push for the EU’s agreements to include human rights clauses in the first place, clauses that are now being made into dead letters by inaction on Gaza.
It remains to be seen what will lead to the tipping point beyond which the Europeans will be forced to move decisively. Each day of delay increases the number of casualties of the famine on the ground. As the images from Gaza become more horrific, Europeans are left wondering what more it will take for Europe to act.