{"id":12400,"date":"2026-04-21T08:17:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/12400\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:17:06","slug":"suspending-the-eu-israel-trade-deal-is-now-the-only-tool-left-for-brussels-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/12400\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspending the EU-Israel trade deal is now the only tool left for Brussels \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suspending the Association Agreement with Israel is the only tool left for the European Union to affirm its commitment to a rules-based international order. <\/p>\n

Failing to do so, in light of the available evidence of ongoing Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, would simply confirm what Palestinian, Arab, and European civil societies have long been denouncing regarding the EU\u2019s double standards. <\/p>\n

It would also invite more people to abandon faith in international law. <\/p>\n

While this may not produce immediate dramatic results in the short term, failing to hold Israel accountable should prompt the EU to start thinking about the next chapter \u2014 one without any realistic prospects for the two-state solution and requiring acceptance of the reality of Israel as an apartheid regime.<\/p>\n

Under Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission has shown little sympathy for Palestine. <\/p>\n

It is still widely remembered that in 2023 she congratulated Israel on its independence while openly embracing colonial narratives aimed at whitewashing and even justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. <\/p>\n

There remains an ideological bias in Brussels that continues to protect Israel, even in the absence of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea that Israel is a democracy with which Europe shares values, though increasingly eroding, is still present. In this framework, the illegal Israeli occupation and its systematic violations of international law are treated as \u201cproblems\u201d that should not harm the bilateral relationship. <\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0Haaretz\u00a0in 2018, then EU representative to Tel Aviv Emanuele Giaufret referred to \u201cdiplomatic disagreements\u201d as \u201cinsignificant,\u201d noting that they were, as the newspaper wrote, \u201ccompared to the cooperation away from the spotlights.\u201d <\/p>\n

This policy of separating Israel from its illegal settler-colonial occupation has greatly contributed to the disappearance of prospects for a political solution.<\/p>\n

The EU remains Israel\u2019s main trading partner. <\/p>\n

This leverage has rarely been used to apply pressure. <\/p>\n

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has seemed more concerned with undoing what her predecessor Josep Borrell sought to achieve in the region than with addressing the catastrophic consequences of allowing Israel to act with impunity. <\/p>\n

This position has had consequences on the ground, where it is now widely acknowledged that the EU representation in Palestine appears significantly more conservative in its approach than it was under the previous representative, Sven K\u00fchn von Burgsdorff<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Under the current approach, the EU has primarily focused on Palestinian reforms, as if Palestine\u2019s central issue were one of institution-building rather than an illegal settler-colonial occupation. <\/p>\n

War crimes openly stated<\/p>\n

No matter a genocide, Israeli officials openly stating war crimes as their policies and utter opposition to the inalienable Palestinian right to self-determination, the EU does not change its behaviour.<\/p>\n

Israel understands very well how the EU operates. <\/p>\n

It has not facilitated the work of European diplomats and has rarely granted meetings with high-level EU officials over the past months. <\/p>\n

Israeli authorities assume that the EU will refrain from speaking out against Israeli violations in order to secure a \u201cseat at the table.\u201d <\/p>\n

The question, however, is: which table? <\/p>\n

The only forum where Israel is currently engaging on regional issues is the so-called \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d<\/a> a problematic initiative by the Trump administration that seeks to sideline the UN\u2019s role while granting Israel impunity for crimes committed in Gaza, and conditioning reconstruction and humanitarian aid on alleged Israeli security concerns. <\/p>\n

This is not a forum in which the EU should seek to promote its stated values of justice, equality, and self-determination.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority, constrained by Israeli sanctions and unable to pay salaries, is not leading calls for suspending the Association Agreement, neither it opposed the last EU-Israel Association Council. <\/p>\n

For instance, it has praised Germany and Greece for their positions, despite their known opposition to sanctions on Israel. <\/p>\n

Instead, it has largely engaged in the EU-led \u201creforms\u201d process, being forced to discuss sensitive issues such as the educational curriculum, while the EU continues full cooperation with Israeli educational institutions that are complicit in discrimination and violence against Palestinians. <\/p>\n

Fully ending the Israeli occupation \u2014 the only viable path to achieving a two-state solution \u2014 is not even mentioned in European statements.<\/p>\n

The PA may have limited options, but the EU does not. <\/p>\n

Moreover, the EU and its member states have both legal and political responsibilities to uphold. The EU\u2019s strategic interest in preserving a rules-based multilateral order lies in holding Israel accountable for decades of systematic and well-documented war crimes and human rights violations. This is clearly stipulated in Article 2 of the Association Agreement. <\/p>\n

Failing to act will not enhance the EU\u2019s relevance; on the contrary, it will underscore its irrelevance by highlighting its failure to fulfill its obligations and by demonstrating that double standards and selectivity -rather than principles and \u201crespect for human rights and democratic principles\u201d \u2013 define its approach to international law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspending the Association Agreement with Israel is the only tool left for the European Union to affirm its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[770,18,7872,7869,3388,8371,3386,7867,7870,8369,3387,7868,7871,8370],"class_list":{"0":"post-12400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-identifier4328","11":"tag-identifier4331","12":"tag-identifier4401","13":"tag-identifier4502","14":"tag-nameeu-and-the-world","15":"tag-namegaza","16":"tag-nameisrael","17":"tag-namelebanon","18":"tag-termcodeeu-and-the-world","19":"tag-termcodegaza","20":"tag-termcodeisrael","21":"tag-termcodelebanon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116441713606486562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}