muster political will for collective action<\/a>, then the moral, political and legal burden falls on individual Member States. Countries like Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia have already taken encouraging steps in recognising the state of Palestine and demanding accountability. But much more is needed now.\n<\/p>\n\nEuropean countries that claim to support human rights and uphold international law must start acting within their own prerogatives to bring their influence to bear.\n<\/p>\n
\nFor starters, this would mean unilaterally suspending or revoking arms export licenses to Israel under their own national export control laws, including for dual-use equipment and technology.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nIndividual countries can also stop funding national co-financed projects involving Israeli entities, or withdraw from joint research agreements with Israeli institutions. They can impose their own national sanctions regimes on human rights grounds, including visa bans and asset freezes. While some Nordic countries have such laws, others could use counterterrorism laws to freeze assets.\n<\/p>\n
\nSettlement-linked companies can be excluded from public procurement and state investment funds. On top of this, state-owned enterprises or sovereign wealth funds can divest from settlement-linked companies, and national authorities can ban port calls or airspace use for Israeli military vessels and aircraft.\n<\/p>\n
\nFinally, member states with universal jurisdiction provisions can prosecute suspected Israeli and Palestinian war criminals if they enter their territory, or in some cases even in absentia. All member states are of course obliged to support the ICC in arrest warrants and investigations.\n<\/p>\n
\nIndividual countries should establish coalitions of the willing that take matters into their own hands as long as the EU remains frozen. Europe\u2019s image as a principled, reliable, and rules-based actor is being destroyed \u2013 not by autocratic Russia and China, or other adversaries with dictatorial regimes, but by its own refusal to enforce international law when the perpetrator is an ally.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nAt the heart of this disgraceful paralysis are governments that have chosen to side with impunity. The EU spoiler governments are not acting in the interest of peace between Israel and Palestine. They are undermining European unity and damaging the EU\u2019s global credibility and partnerships. They are also complicit in prolonging the suffering of millions of Palestinians, endangering Israel\u2019s security.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nThe EU\u2019s inaction is not just a strategic blunder \u2013 it is an appalling moral failure as it enables Israel\u2019s impunity and entrenches a conflict that will continue to fuel instability, radicalisation, and despair for generations in the Middle East.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nPalestinians deserve freedom, dignity, and self-determination. Israelis deserve peace and security within internationally recognised borders. Both peoples deserve leaders \u2013 and international partners \u2013 who spare no effort in working towards peace and justice, not a never-ending cycle of violence and perpetual domination.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sven K\u00fchn von Burgsdorff served as the European Union Representative to the occupied Palestinian territory, based in East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699],"class_list":{"0":"post-343553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115026521387092514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343553","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=343553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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