{"id":303812,"date":"2025-07-30T11:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303812\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T11:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:45:19","slug":"von-der-leyens-deputy-pushes-president-for-more-eu-action-on-israel-and-gaza-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303812\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen\u2019s deputy pushes president for more EU action on Israel and Gaza \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Commission is a reflection of national sensibilities,\u201d Ribera said in an interview on Spain\u2019s Cadena Ser<\/a> radio network. \u201cInstitutionally it shouldn\u2019t be so, it is supposed to be independent and represent the interests of the EU, but the truth is that everyone comes with their cultural context, their beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ribera herself hails from Spain, one of the EU\u2019s most vocal critics<\/a> of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, and was serving as the country\u2019s deputy prime minister when Madrid recognized Palestinian statehood<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The Commission vice president said that EU ambassadors\u2019 refusal<\/a> to back Brussels\u2019 proposal to curtail<\/a> Israel\u2019s access to the flagship Horizon Europe research and development program revealed just how divided the bloc was on the issue.<\/p>\n

She added that there was \u201cno consensus\u201d within the College of Commissioners regarding stronger measures like the outright suspension<\/a> of the\u00a0EU-Israel Association Agreement, or the imposition of sanctions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Israel launched its military offensive in October 2023 in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,000 people on Israeli territory. Palestinian health authorities this week said more than 60,000 people<\/a> had died in Israel\u2019s ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip, with nearly a third of the dead under the age of 18. According to United Nations-backed global food security experts, Israeli-imposed limits on the flow of aid into the region have resulted in a \u201cworst-case scenario of famine<\/a>\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n

Comparing the suffering of civilians in Gaza to that of Jews imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, Ribera criticized the EU for idly standing by while \u201cone of the worst humanitarian scandals [in history]\u201d unfolds, adding that \u201chistory will not look the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a race against time, with people dying of hunger,\u201d she said. \u201cEurope must react and consolidate itself as a political actor \u2026 And mobilize the principles that inspired the construction of the European project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Commission is a reflection of national sensibilities,\u201d Ribera said in an interview on Spain\u2019s Cadena Ser radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[6505,2000,299,5187,15414,14006,4582,837,1815,7163,839,7162,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-303812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-holocaust","13":"tag-horizon-europe","14":"tag-human-rights","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-hamas-war","17":"tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","18":"tag-middle-east","19":"tag-teresa-ribera","20":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114942019194268589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}