The high representative for Foreign Policy of the Union, Josep Borrell, has summoned the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Israel Katz, and the heads of diplomacy of the 27 member states to a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza, according to community sources. . The meeting, which will be part of the EU-Israel Association Council, still does not have a date and may take a while to arrive not only due to the refusal of the Israeli Government, which has refused to attend in recent times, but also due to pressure from countries like Hungary. , the Czech Republic or Bulgaria, who do not want Israel’s violations of human rights in the Strip to be discussed in that forum, as Spain or Ireland have demanded.
The voice of the Twenty-Seven on the war in Gaza continues to be expressed in several different tones. Despite this cacophony, the EU has increased pressure on the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu and urged it to accept the plan announced by the US for a lasting ceasefire in the Strip. Pressure also increases on Hamas, from whom it demands the release of the hostages. The proposal spread and supported by President Joe Biden is born from an Israeli plan, but Netanyahu’s Executive now says that he does not recognize himself in it and has rejected it. Meanwhile, Hamas, which with the October 7 attacks unleashed Israel’s war in Gaza, has asked Washington for guarantees.
Although in tow of the United States, and with a reluctant Hungary finally on board, the Twenty-Seven issued one of their most blunt joint statements on the situation in Gaza on Tuesday night and demanded a permanent ceasefire. “Too many civilian lives have been lost,” says the EU, which is offering to help revive the political peace process.
European meeting
Member States will now have to agree on the common position (and date) for the meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council, in special session, to which the head of Israeli diplomacy is invited. A week ago, the foreign ministers of the Twenty-seven agreed to call this meeting, but Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are now pressing to postpone it, diplomatic sources acknowledge.
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In February, Spain and Ireland asked the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to analyze whether Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza contravene the association agreement with the EU, which respects human rights. in its fundamental core. However, Von der Leyen, one of the community leaders closest to Israel, has left the request in limbo. In parallel, Borrell has already tried to call the association council meeting. The heads of community diplomacy agreed to do so only a week ago.
The trade agreement with the Jewish State is one of the levers of pressure from the EU – which is Israel’s main partner, representing 25% of the transactions it maintains abroad – for the Netanyahu Government to agree to a halt to the fire at a time when civilian casualties are in the tens of thousands: some 36,000 people have died in Israeli attacks, according to Gazan authorities, and an unknown number remain buried under the rubble.
Tension with Israel
The letter of invitation to Katz and the European foreign ministers comes at a time of special tension between the Netanyahu Government and Borrell, one of the clearest and toughest European voices on the violations of international law by the Israeli army in the Strip. In fact, the Israeli Executive has refused to receive its envoy for Middle East Peace, Sven Koopmans, visiting Israel (and Ramallah) these days. The high representative’s term will end this fall and Israel hopes to wait for his replacement. Meanwhile, he prefers to use other communication channels in the Community Executive, says a senior Israeli source, who speaks on condition of anonymity.
Israel, the source points out, also rules out Spain as an interlocutor – which has led the group of Ireland, Norway and Slovenia that has recognized the State of Palestine – whom the Netanyahu Government has accused of “rewarding” Hamas.
Israel manages a kind of “traffic light” with the 27 members of the EU according to its position towards the Jewish State: in green are Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which until now have prevented a hardening of the European position against Israel; in yellow those that maintain a more neutral position and in bright red, countries like Spain, especially for having recognized Palestine. Borrell, the source ironically said, is even beyond that red that they consider so dangerous. “Borrell is not the EU,” the source stressed.
The same senior official especially accused Borrell of being “obsessed” with Israel and showed as an example the number of messages on the social network of all pronouncements—dedicated to the conflict in Gaza, 127; compared to those issued regarding another of the great European challenges in geopolitical matters, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 67 messages, according to his calculations.
At the same time, he stated that, with his positions, which he claims do not represent the entire EU, the head of European diplomacy is “dividing the EU”, in addition to “damaging” the Union’s relationship with Israel and, even , “harming the Palestinians themselves,” since their “biased” stance does not help their cause, he maintained. “It is becoming irrelevant,” warned the source, who assures that several representatives of European governments have assured him that it always reflects the common position discussed behind closed doors.
Borrell’s criticisms against Israel have unleashed some unrest in some member states, such as Germany. His chancellor, Olaf Scholz, attacked the head of European diplomacy in the closed-door meeting of the European Council in March, in which the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, defended him, community sources explain. Although since then, the positions of most European partners towards Netanyahu have hardened.
A Commission spokesperson indicated this Wednesday that so far there have been no official complaints from European capitals questioning Borrell’s messages. “The only ones who should judge whether or not it exceeds its mandate are the Member States to which it responds. So far, I have not seen any statement or statement from the 27 Member States saying that the high representative is not doing the job he is supposed to do,” he indicated at a press conference.
Accusation of anti-Semitism
The European Commission this Wednesday flatly rejected the accusation of anti-Semitism launched this week during a Jewish congress in Amsterdam, where a hundred delegates from Jewish communities in Europe approved a resolution in which Borrell is accused of having demonstrated “a clear and repeated anti-Israel bias that has contributed significantly to current anti-Semitism and the vilification of the State of Israel as a whole in the European public space,” according to the newspaper. Times of Israel.
“I firmly reject any accusation against High Representative Borrell of anti-Semitism or of contributing to the wave of anti-Semitism,” replied the Commission’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Peter Stano, this Wednesday. Borrell “is not biased against Israel. “He is concerned about the loss of human life,” the spokesperson stressed. A concern that extends both to the deaths of Israeli citizens that occurred “during the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7”, and “to the loss of innocent lives of hostages” in the hands of Hamas and, of course also, “to the lives of innocent civilians who are perishing in the continued hostilities in Gaza,” he recalled.
“Talking about this and trying to find solutions to break the cycle of violence once and for all is not anti-Semitism,” concluded Stano, who recalled that Borrell’s role is, “is to seek consensus in the positions and actions of the “EU in important events that are part of the domain of European foreign policy, and this also includes the conflict in Gaza.”
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