LONDON: Former European officials have criticized the EU for pausing sanctions against the Israeli government, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
The pause came in response to US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts in the Middle East.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, after meeting the bloc’s foreign ministers on Monday, announced a pause on efforts to suspend preferential trade with Israel. Sanctions against figures responsible for driving the Gaza war were also paused.
Kallas said since last month, when the measures were proposed, the context has changed. Though “divergent views” were offered at the ministerial meeting, officials agreed that “we don’t move with the measures now, but we don’t take them off the table either because the situation is fragile,” she added.
Associate EU director at Human Rights Watch, Claudio Francavilla, said European governments are still protecting Israeli authorities from accountability.
Responding to the remarks by Kallas, he said: “What may have changed so far is the scale and the intensity of Israel’s atrocity crimes in Gaza; but its unlawful occupation and crimes of apartheid, forced displacement, torture and oppression of Palestinians continue unabated.”
Two former senior European figures also criticized the decision to pause the introduction of sanctions.
Former EU representative to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, told The Guardian that Kallas has missed “the point” of legal accountability.
“Sanctions are not just a measure to induce or coerce a third party to change or adjust its behaviour,” he said.
“Restrictive measures are part of the tools the EU has given itself to react to breaches of both European and international law.”
In June, the bloc concluded that Israel had breached its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Lawyers have also said the EU must ensure Israeli compliance with the International Court of Justice’s non-binding opinion from 2024 that calls for the end of the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Last week, Burgsdorff co-organized the signing of a statement by 414 former top officials that urged immediate European action “against spoilers and extremists on both sides.”
The action should target those who have jeopardized “the establishment of a future Palestinian state,” the statement said.
The EU ditching its sanctions efforts against Israel would be the worst possible outcome, said Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to two EU foreign policy high representatives.
“That is the last thing that we should be doing, because this is exactly the moment when you need to keep the pressure on,” she told The Guardian.
“Because we all know that it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that this (Trump) plan will be implemented.
“I fear that … European governments and institutions will be … reverting back to the sort of old, familiar patterns.”
Substantial pro-Palestine protest movements in EU member states had spurred the bloc to take action against Israel.
At a summit on Thursday, European leaders are set to discuss the Gaza war, with a divide expected between traditional advocates of Palestine — Spain and Ireland — and pro-Israel governments such as those in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
EU officials are pushing for the bloc to be represented on Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza.
Burgsdorff said: “We need to work on a very robust UN mandate, a mandate which allows international partners to field soldiers, security forces to ensuring or to ensure the security in the Gaza Strip.”
