Israel, EU rejects “any attempt at demographic change” in Gaza

Brussels – For the first time since she was given the post of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas is promising to “do more” to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law in its devastating offensive in Gaza. Pressed by the “majority of member countries” at the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Warsaw, the EU diplomacy chief said, “We repress any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, as well as the forced relocation of the Palestinian population.”

What is happening in the Palestinian enclave—where no humanitarian aid has entered for more than two months due to the Israeli-imposed blockade—”is unsustainable” and the situation “is rapidly deteriorating,” Kallas said on the sidelines of the meeting. After weeks of deafening silence, the latest developments have brought the conflict between Israel and Hamas back to the top of Brussels’ agenda. Which, on the one hand, is calling for respect for international law in Ukraine, while on the other, continues to maintain more than friendly relations with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, like Vladimir Putin, by the International Criminal Court.

First, the breaking of the ceasefire and the new inhumane siege of the Strip, now the plan to take control of the distribution of humanitarian aid by cutting off the UN and its partners, and above all, the announcement of the extension of military operations to take over Gaza, where there are not only Hamas militiamen, but 2.2 million civilians surviving in the rubble, amid indiscriminate shelling and with neither water nor food left. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that in the past 24 hours, at least 106 people have been killed and 367 others wounded as a result of Israeli attacks. Yesterday, in a communiqué, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, reported on the killing of at least 30 displaced people at a UNRWA school. “In Gaza, day after day, inaction and indifference are normalising dehumanisation and ignoring the crimes broadcast live before our eyes: families bombed, children burned alive, starving children,” he wrote.

Raising the question urgently at the EU level were surprisingly the Netherlands, so far among the most reluctant to criticise the Israeli ally. The Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldkamp, dusted off the request—already supported by Spain and Ireland and then shelved by Brussels—for a revision of the EU-Israel Association Agreement because of clear violations of international humanitarian law by Tel Aviv. Indeed, Article 2 of the agreement stipulates respect for human rights and democratic principles as the basis for cooperation between the Union and the Jewish state.

“We have decided to discuss it at the next Foreign Affairs Council, which will be held on May 20,” Kallas announced. It is a step forward, to be fair, already taken six months ago by her predecessor, Josep Borrell, whose attempt to break off political dialogue with Israel was, however, nipped in the bud by member states. And even now, in the face of the new Israeli escalation, the member states remain divided, evidenced by the fact that no note of condemnation has been circulated so far on behalf of the 27. “Of course, we have to brainstorm what more we can do. You know very well that we have very divergent views among the member states on some issues,” Kallas admitted. But “now the situation has changed,” she added. Perhaps the liberal Estonian EU hawk for Ukraine also noticed this. Better late than never.