Parliament rejects plea to close Luxembourg trade office in Israel

A majority of Luxembourg lawmakers on Wednesday rejected calls to close the country’s trade and investment office (LTIO) in Tel Aviv in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Left-wing member of parliament David Wagner had submitted the motion following a debate last week during which the assembly also rejected imposing sanctions on Israel. The debate came after a public petition demanding sanctions had reached more than 4,500 signatures.

“History has its eyes on us,” said Wagner, adding that closing the office in Tel Aviv is a measure that Luxembourg can unilaterally take to apply pressure on Israel.

“It’s a small thing, but it would be symbolic,” said LSAP lawmaker Yves Cruchten whose party had co-signed the motion. “What is happening is a crime,” he said about Israel’s war in Gaza, adding that the EU has adopted 18 sanctions packages against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine but no sanctions against Israel.

The EU has issued sanctions against individual extremist Israeli settlers and several entities in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“This is the absolute minimum,” Cruchten said about the proposal to close the LTIO.

The DP – the party of Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel – voted against the motion, saying that analyses by the European Commission were ongoing whether Israel has committed human rights abuses and what actions should be taken accordingly by the bloc.

“Israel has definitely violated human rights,” replied Green MP Sam Tanson. “We can watch the human rights abuses every day live on television.”

With Laurent Zeimet of governing party CSV saying that Israel is the only democracy in the region and should not be pilloried for the regional situation, the Pirate Party’s Sven Clement replied that democracies have obligations and must abide by the rule of law, including human rights.

The LTIO is not an embassy, Clement said, but is led by an Israeli businessman [Itai Horstock, editor’s note] representing private sector interests. The Pirate Party MP raised the broader question of how Luxembourg is represented and the benefits of the LTIO.

Shutting down the LTIO would damage Luxembourg companies doing business in Israel as well as penalising local businesses, Bettel said during his remarks.

EU ministers to meet next week

“We should do something that has an impact on the ground,” he said, rejecting the proposal as “purely symbolic.” Bettel did not outline what coercive action Luxembourg can or will take in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

He had previously rejected calls for Luxembourg to finally recognise Palestinian statehood, also saying that the move would be symbolic and not change anything for Palestinians in the current context. Last week, Bettel also claimed Luxembourg could not unilaterally impose sanctions on Israel, which was refuted by a legal scholar at the Max Planck Institute.

The CSV, DP and ADR with 40 votes combined voted against the motion to close the LTIO against 20 votes from déi Lénk, the LSAP, déi Gréng and the Pirate Party supporting the document.  

EU foreign ministers are due to meet next week to discuss proposals for sanctions by the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. The meeting comes after a gathering last week where the European Commission had present evidence that “there are indications” that Israel is in breach of its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel association agreement.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,500 people and wounded more than 135,000 in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel in which 1,200 people died and 250 people were taken hostage.