Gaza: Von der Leyen distances herself from Israel (while hiding behind member states’ divisions)

Brussels – Suspending bilateral support to Israel, sanctions on the ministers of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and violent settlers, and the partial suspension of the Association Agreement that links Brussels and Tel Aviv. Three measures urged by millions of European citizens, non-governmental organisations, and political representatives in several member. Putting them on the table today (10 September), for the first time, is “the long-standing friend of the Israeli people,” as she defines herself: the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The target of heavy criticism because of her prolonged silence, her failure to support those who have been denouncing Israeli atrocities in Gaza for months, and her unfortunate interventions alongside a government led by a war criminal wanted by an international court, von der Leyen chose the annual  State of the Union address in the European Parliament to extricate herself. It comes the day before the same Strasbourg Chamber will, for the first time, put to a vote a resolution to demand more decisive action to stop the conflict.

“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world. People killed while begging for food. Mothers holding lifeless babies. These images are simply catastrophic.” The EU leader began, accusing Israel of a “systematic shift that is simply unacceptable.” The “financial suffocation” of the Palestinian Authority, the settlement plans to isolate East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, and the actions and statements of ministers “inciting violence.” It is all out in the open, and not even von der Leyen can turn her back any longer, even though she says, “It truly pains me to say these words.”

Political calculation plays its part, as von der Leyen is aware that “for many citizens, Europe’s inability to agree on a common way forward is equally painful.” The risk is that on this file the EU – and inevitably, its leader – will permanently lose all credibility in the eyes of voters and the world. So far, the Commission has only proposed a partial suspension of research funding to Israel through the Horizon programme. A handful of member states in the EU Council blocked the proposal.

“We cannot afford to be paralysed,” von der Leyen continued, assuring that from now on “the Commission will do all that it can on its own.” It can do so in the case of bilateral support: “We will put our bilateral support to Israel on hold. We will stop all payments in these areas – without affecting our work with Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem. (the Holocaust museum, ed.),” she announced. A spokesperson then specified that, under the EU Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), Israel was to receive ‘an average of 6 million per year between 2025 and 2027’. In addition to suspending the remaining annual allocations, the Commission will freeze ‘approximately €14 million for ongoing projects’. In particular, institutional cooperation projects and twinning programmes.

The executive’s room for manoeuvre stops there, after which the Commission will propose to the member states to adopt sanctions against “extremist ministers” and violent settlers, and to partially suspend the Association Agreement concerning trade issues.

“I am aware that it will be difficult to find majorities” and that “any action will be too much for some and too little for others,” von der Leyen admitted, calling on Parliament and the Council to “take responsibility.“ After 23 months of conflict and 64,000 Palestinian victims, von der Leyen began to do so today. And the first reaction from Tel Aviv has already arrived: the foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, defined von der Leyen’s words as “regrettable,” and tainted by the “echoes of the false propaganda of Hamas and its allies.”