By sacrificing Palestine, Europe betrays | Opinion

“The law is interpreted for friends and applied to enemies,” said Italian statesman Giovanni Giolitti one day.

There are few better examples of this than the way in which the European Union looks back to avoid treating the severe violations of Israel of international law and the terms of its association agreement with the block.

On May 20, the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) voted to examine the question of whether Israel refused Human Rights of the Palestinians by preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

A month later, the same organization concluded: “There are indications that Israel would be in violation of its obligations in matters of human rights under article 2 of the agreement of the association of the EU-Israel.” Indications …

On June 26, EU heads of government at a European Council meeting concluded that they had “noted” these indications and invited the FAC to “continue discussions” in July.

It is understandable that some initially welcomed the vote to examine the EU-Israel agreement in May. It is only human to keep everything that gives hope that measures will finally be taken to protect human rights from the Palestinian people.

Unfortunately, the entire “debate” on the agreement of the EU-Israel is simply a sham. It does not represent serious action by the EU to fight against the atrocities that Israel commits to Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory. He diverts growing criticism by giving the impression that the EU could finally think about doing something. More importantly, he distracts the obligations that the EU and its members are legally required to fulfill.

Human rights services

Twenty months after the devastating war of Israel in Gaza, the violations of Israel of human rights and international law are so extensive that it is no doubt about their relevance for the EU-Israel agreement.

They are so numerous that they must be organized in categories to capture the depth and extent of the destruction formed on all aspects of life in Gaza.

Israel has been accused of intentionally creating calculated conditions to destroy the possibility of Palestinian life in the band, which is equivalent to a genocide. This includes the domicide and the installation of waste of the urban landscape of Gaza; Medical – systematic dismantling of the health system; Scholasticide – Destroy schools, universities and libraries; Ecode – Annouring agriculture and nature of Gaza; Econocide – Devastation of Gaza’s economy; And unleash – make childhood impossible.

More than 90% of the Gaza population, or 1.9 million people, has been moved and, in the last three months only, more than 600,000 people have been moved again, up to 10 times or more. A complete blockade has been imposed by the Israelis since March 2, and lean aid deliveries were only reinstated at the end of May. Famine is widespread; 66 children died of famine and more than 5,000 were hospitalized for acute malnutrition in May only.

Under the pressure of European public opinion, which rejects more and more European support for Israel, the EU finally decided to do something. But this something involved a little to speak and – so far – no action.

The block decided to vote on the examination of the agreement of the EU-Israel association. But it was nothing out of the ordinary because all association agreements should be subject to regular exams, which can trigger progress, to reduce the depth and extent of relationships.

In fact, those who called the vote knew very well that the suspension of the agreement requires a unanimous vote of 27 member states, which is currently impossible. The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Member States, such as Germany, Italy and Hungary, clearly explained Crystal their unwavering support in Israel. In these circumstances, hoping for a unanimous vote to suspend the agreement is close to delusional. A qualified majority vote could suspend some parts of the trade agreement, but it is the most that we can hope for.

It is hardly an approval that sounds like the Union’s commitment to human rights and “fundamental values”. Instead, public invocations by governments and officials of article 2 of the EU-Israel agreement, which stipulates that all areas covered by the agreement itself “are based on respect for human rights”, are only an empty rhetoric.

In reality, the EU has never provided that these human rights conditionalities be taken seriously. It is easy to see why; He has never specified by what criteria should human rights be assessed, and he chose not to make these routine, compulsory and public assessments.

In this way, the EU lets itself be enough space to claim that it values ​​”human rights and fundamental values” while “interpreting” its own rules to avoid having to take significant measures.

Empty rhetoric

Some European states have decided to take individual measures, but what they did was just as meaningless as examining the EU agreement.

The United Kingdom has suspended trade discussions with Israel, but not trade. Its recent press release alongside France and Canada was deceived as “more difficult” than EU declarations. However, the press release is only opposed to “the expansion of the military operations of Israel in Gaza”: it only takes on the extension and intensification of the Israel Assault, and not with the devastation made on the band so far.

He also does not mention the war crimes the fact that ARRAEL has been accused, nor declares a commitment to maintain the arrest mandates of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

In fact, despite the invocation of the United Kingdom to the Israel ambassador after his “difficult” joint declaration with France and Canada, he continued his surveillance flights above or near the Gaza Airspace, suspected of gathering information for the Israeli army.

France, for its part, said that it would recognize a Palestinian state in June. June came and came without recognition.

In October 2023, Spain said it had ceased to sell weapons to Israel. In May, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “We are not dealing with a genocidal state.” And yet, a reflection group based in Barcelona recently revealed the existence of more than 40 contracts between Spanish state institutions and Israeli defense companies.

Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy also continue to provide weapons in violation of the spirit of international law.

Legal obligations

If European governments were seriously aimed at responding to the crimes of Israel, they could do so by simply respecting their legal obligations under the various Treaties of the EU and international law.

The EU Charter of fundamental rights and the Lisbon Treaty require that the Bloc integrates respect for “democracy, human rights and fundamental values” in all EU policies. This is why all association agreements have conditionalities of human rights in the first place.

The genocide agreement requires a preventive duty to use “all reasonably available means” to prevent the genocide. Already in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accepted that the right of the Palestinians to be protected from the genocide is violated.

The actions that EU states can take include, but without limiting themselves: the cessation of weapons contracts with the Israeli government and Israeli companies; suspend intelligence cooperation; and cut trade, cultural and research with and funding for Israeli private and public institutions on occupied Palestinian land. They should also support the rigorous application of international law, including the support of the case against Israel to the ICJ and the application of arrest warrants issued by the ICC.

Currently, the EU is in the blatant violation of its legal functions and its own rules. This is a direct consequence of decades of ignorance of raw abuses by Israel and other associated states, notably Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.

No quantity of “interpretation” or hiding place behind the procedure can mask the fact that the EU is in flagrant violation of its legal obligations and the mind of its own rules. He has experience by ignoring the continuous violations of human rights in associated states, notably Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan. This assessment has reached an ignominious peak since October 2023.

Inaction on Gaza reveals the limits of Europe’s commitment to its self -proclaimed values: by sacrificing Palestine, Europe betrays.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.