From Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg
There was a breakthrough in the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday. A majority of the 27 member states prevailed in supporting the Netherlands’ proposal to launch a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement due to possible breaches of human rights in Gaza.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said after the meeting that “a strong majority” of member states backed the move, adding that “countries see that the situation in Gaza is untenable and what we want is to really help the people and unblock the humanitarian aid so that it will reach the people.”
According to reports, 17 countries supported the Dutch proposal, while nine opposed it and one abstained. Leading up to the meeting, EU officials were skeptical about the possibility of getting even a simple majority due to opposition from countries such as Germany, which carries a lot of weight in the EU voting system. German officials were quite confident they could block the move, despite being abandoned by the Netherlands, their traditional ally on issues related to support for Israel.
Hungary and other smaller EU states have been loud in their support for Israel’s actions. Budapest, for instance, last month welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite a warrant being issued by the International Criminal Court for his arrest on genocide charges. More recently, it blocked imposing more sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
However, Germany has been the most effective in shielding Israel from criticism at home and within the EU. In 2016, Berlin spearheaded a move to widen the definition of antisemitism to include criticism of the Israeli government. This has since been adopted by at least 25 EU member states, plus the US. In 2021, the European Commission published a handbook “for the practical use” of this new definition, which is being used in the current campaign to silence critics of Israel.
In 2018, Germany created the Office of the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, a vast bureaucracy that includes commissioners at the state and local levels, some of whom work out of prosecutors’ offices or police stations. There are dozens of “antisemitism commissioners” throughout Germany, whose task is to monitor incidents or individuals falling afoul of the new definition of antisemitism. Their targets have included the German-Israeli sociologist Moshe Zuckermann, who was targeted for supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Jewish South African photographer Adam Broomberg and many others questioning Israeli policies.
In 2019, the German parliament passed a resolution condemning BDS as “antisemitic,” which has had a chilling effect on German debates on Israel and led to the cancellation or disruption of many events considered to be sympathetic to BDS or critical of Israel. Since the war in Gaza started in October 2023, German authorities have acted with more vengeance, even violence at times, to suppress criticism of Israeli actions. They have canceled or disrupted dozens of events, withdrawn previously awarded grants, fired academics, deported foreign visitors or denied them entry, and publicly shamed those who have defied the ban on pro-Palestinian discourse.
Germany has also continued to supply Israel with weapons, some of which are being used in the war against Gaza, leading to accusations of complicity in the Gaza genocide, which is the basis for Nicaragua’s case against Germany before the International Court of Justice. Within the EU and the UN and before the world court, Berlin has been among the fiercest defenders of Israel.
The German position has become quite evident in recent meetings in Riyadh, Brussels and elsewhere. While circumspect in official statements, they lobbied participants behind the scenes to drop their opposition to Israeli actions.
They dismiss diplomatic efforts, such as the move to review the EU-Israel Association Agreement, as useless because Germany can block any action based on that review.
They also dismiss cases before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and any attempts to censure Israel internationally as counterproductive. The only way to influence Israel, they believe, is for Arabs to “normalize” relations with Israel without conditions. Without presenting evidence, they believe that only normalization has the promise of changing Israel’s conduct in the region.
While it is admirable for Berlin to document and remember crimes committed by the Nazis and try to prevent them from recurring in Germany, it is inexplicable how it is using their memory and the inherent guilt associated with them to justify inflicting similar crimes by Israel against the Palestinians.
Tuesday’s EU move was possibly influenced by the statement issued a day earlier by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. They threatened “concrete actions” if Israel continued to block aid to Gaza.
The UK has also halted negotiations with Israel on a free trade agreement. And France announced that it is planning to recognize the state of Palestine, which Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot linked to Israel’s actions in Gaza. “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred. So all this must stop, and that’s why we are determined to recognize a Palestinian state,” he said.
Following the EU vote, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said he had “no doubt” about the extent of Israeli violations in Gaza and that the review could lead to the suspension of the association agreement, indicating the extent of the frustration most European governments feel with their inability to moderate Israeli actions in Gaza. However, a suspension of the deal will be very difficult to achieve given the EU’s complicated voting system, which means a small number of countries could block such action.
While the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is a welcome move, it is doubtful that it will lead to concrete collective action by the EU on trade with Israel. However, it adds one more piece to the EU’s diplomatic toolkit. Despite opposition by some of its member states, the EU has taken significant steps to push for a diplomatic solution to both the Gaza war and the underlying Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For example, it supports Saudi Arabia and Norway’s efforts to make the two-state solution a viable option. It has also supported the post-conflict Arab plan for Gaza. The EU is among the largest providers of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians and strongest supporters of the Palestinian Authority.
The strong majority in Tuesday’s meeting is likely to grow in future votes, adding pressure within the EU on Israel’s supporters and giving EU diplomacy more credibility and relevance in the Middle East and beyond. –FP
