Through sacrifice Palestine, Europe betrays itself Opinions

“The law is interpreted for friends and is applied to the enemies,” said Italian statesman Giovanni Giuliti.

There are few examples of this better than the way the European Union bends back to avoid addressing violations of Israeli international law and the conditions for an agreement to link it with the bloc.

On May 20, the European Union Foreign Affairs Council (Fac) voted for a review whether Israel deprives human rights of the Palestinians by preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

A month later, the same body concluded: “There are indications that Israel will be in violation of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the European Union Association for Israel.” Indications …

On June 26, the European Union heads of government concluded at a meeting of the European Council that they “noticed” those indicators and called Fac to “continue discussions” in July.

It is understood that some initially welcomed the vote to review the agreement of the European Union of Israel in May. It is only human to adhere to anything that gives hope that the action will be taken recently to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Unfortunately, the entire “discussion” on the European Union Convention on Israel is just a trick. Make a serious action regarding the European Union to address the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza and other places in the occupied Palestinian territories. It deviates from increased criticism by giving the impression that the European Union may finally think about doing something. More importantly, it distracts attention from the obligations with which the European Union and its members are legally related.

Human rights allegations

After twenty months of the devastating war of Israel in Gaza, Israel’s violations of human rights and international law are so widespread that there could be no doubt about its importance to the agreement of the European Union Convention on Israel.

It is so much that it must be organized in categories to capture the depth and breadth of the destruction caused by every aspect of life in Gaza.

Israel has been accused of intentionally creating conditions for destroying the possibility of Palestinian life in the tape, which amounts to genocide. This includes Domicice and Under to Term of Gaza in Gaza’s landscape; Medicide – systematically dismantling the health care system; Scholashicide – destroying schools, universities and libraries; ECOCIDE – Survey of Agriculture and Nature in Gaza; Econocide – Gaza’s Economy Destruction; And unchailding – making childhood impossible.

More than 90 percent of Gaza population, or 1.9 million people have been displaced, and in the past three months alone, more than 600,000 people have been displaced again, up to 10 times or more. A complete siege has been imposed by the Israelis since March 2, and small aid has been re -delivered in late May. Wide -widespread famine. 66 children died of hunger, and more than 5,000 were transferred to the hospital with acute malnutrition in May alone.

Under the pressure from European public opinion, which increasingly rejects European support for Israel, the European Union has finally decided to do something. But this is something that has a little hadith – so far – there is no work.

The bloc decided to vote on reviewing the European Union Association’s agreement. But this was not anything outside because all correlation agreements should be subject to regular reviews, which can lead to progress or limit the depth of relationships and the expansion of their scope.

In fact, those who called for voting know very well that the suspension of the agreement requires a unanimous vote by 27 member states, which is currently impossible. European Commission President Ursula von der Layen, such as Germany, Italy and Hungary, explained their support for their fixed support for Israel. In these circumstances, in the hope of a unanimous vote to suspend the agreement close to the fake. The qualified majority vote may hang parts of the agreement on trade, but this is the most to hope.

This is barely a support for the Federation’s commitment to human rights and “basic values”. Instead, public calls by governments and officials of Article 2 of the Convention on the European Union of Israel, which states that all areas covered by the same agreement “must be based on respect for human rights”, is nothing more than an empty discourse.

In fact, the European Union was never intended to take these conditions in the field of human rights seriously. It is easy to know the reason; It has never been determined according to criteria that must be evaluated human rights, and chose not to make these assessments routine, mandatory and public.

In this way, the European Union itself leaves a sufficient space to demand that it appreciates “human rights and basic values”, in fact, to “interpret” its own rules to avoid having to take any important action.

Empty speech

Some European countries decided to take individual measures, but what they did was meaningless, such as reviewing the European Union agreement.

The UK suspended commercial talks with Israel, but not trade. The last statement has been isolated alongside France and Canada as “strict” than the European Union’s statements. However, the statement only opposes the “expanding military operations in Gaza” for Israel only: the matter represents only the extension and intensification of Israel’s assault, and not with the destruction that occurred on the tape until now.

It also does not mention that the war crimes that were accused of Israel, or declaring an obligation to support the international arrest orders of the Criminal Court (ICC) of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Secretary Yaf Galet.

Indeed, despite the call of the United Kingdom, the Israeli ambassador, after its “cruel” joint statement with France and Canada, continued its monitoring flights or near the airspace in Gaza, which is suspected to bring together the intelligence information of the Israeli army.

France, for its part, announced that it will get to know a Palestinian state in June. Jun came and went without confession.

In October 2023, Spain claimed that it had stopped selling weapons to Israel. In May, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced, “We are not dealing with the genocide state.” However, a research tank based in Barcelona recently revealed that there are more than 40 contracts between Spanish state institutions and Israeli defense companies.

Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy also continue Provide weapons In violation of the spirit of international law.

Legal obligations

If European governments are serious in responding to Israeli crimes, they can do so simply by adhering to their legal obligations under various European Union treaties and international law.

The European Union Charter for Basic Rights and Lisbon Treaty of the Bloc requires a respect for “democracy, human rights and basic values” in all European Union policies. This is why all the association’s agreements have human rights young women in the first place.

The genocide agreement imposes a preventive duty to use “all available means” to prevent genocide. Indeed, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accepted that the right of Palestinians to protect from genocide may violate.

The measures that the European Union countries can take, for example, but not limited to: stopping arms contracts with the Israeli government and Israeli companies; Consideration of intelligence cooperation; And cutting trade, cultural and research exchanges with the financing of private and public institutions around the occupied Palestinian territories. They must also support the strict application of international law, including supporting the case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and enforcing arrest orders issued by the International Criminal Court.

Currently, the European Union is in flagrant violation of its legal duties and special rules. This is the direct result of decades of ignoring grave violations by Israel and other related countries, including Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.

No amount of “interpretation” or hiding law can hide the fact that the European Union is in flagrant violation of its legal obligations and the spirit of its rules. It has a busy record in ignoring the ongoing human rights violations in the related countries, including Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan. This busy record has reached the peak of a violation since October 2023.

The failure of Gaza reveals the borders of Europe’s commitment to its self -declared values: by sacrificing Palestine, Europe is betraying itself.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editorial island.