By Jorge Liboreiro
As war unfolds between Israel and Hamas, the European Union is trying its best to navigate one of the most tangled conflicts of modern history, where each action, each little word, can easily have a magnified effect and be taken out of context to mean exactly the opposite.
The last few days have proven just that.
Over the weekend, European leaders joined forces to deliver a forceful condemnation of the shock attack launched by Hamas, which the bloc considers a terrorist organisation, against Israel’s civilian population. The acts are almost unspeakable: guests of a music festival massacred, residents of kibbutzim shot to death, mothers and their children taken hostages at gunpoint.
“The EU mourns the victims of these senseless attacks and stands by Israel today and in the next weeks,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
Once the shock of the first hours settled, things began to wobble.
By Monday evening, the Commission was scrambling to explain the future of the bloc’s humanitarian and development aid for the Palestinian territories after two high-ranking officials sent diametrically contradictory messages. The monumental PR fiasco saw Brussels lose control of the narrative and appear disoriented at a time when media scrutiny was at its most intense.
Is the EU going to cut off all humanitarian aid when Gazans are in urgent need? Is it possible that some EU funds are being funnelled to Hamas? Should it all be suspended or keep going?
In the end, the Commission opted for an “urgent review” of previously allocated development funds, worth €681 million across the past three years, while humanitarian aid continues flowing. A reasonable outcome that took an unreasonably long time to be clarified.
By Tuesday, the focus had turned to the right of self-defence, as Israel discovered more bodies of slain victims and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of Gaza with “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.”
The siege of the densely populated, underdeveloped enclave, coupled with continued air and artillery strikes, raised fears of a large-scale humanitarian crisis with the potential of emboldening extremist militants and further fuelling the cycle of violence.
“By saying that Israel has the right to self-defence, Europe justifies the crimes Israelis commit against Palestinians civilians,” Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the Palestine mission to the EU, told Euronews in an interview. “When Israel attacks, when Israel occupies, when Israel colonises, when Israel encircles Gaza [...] with all of this, you (Europe) will say that Israel is defending itself?”
With increasingly worrying reports coming from the ground, it was Josep Borrell, the EU’s outspoken foreign policy chief, the one who attempted to delineate the limits of the right to self-defence.
“Some of the actions – and the UN has already said that, such as cutting water, cutting electricity, cutting food to civilian populations – are against international law. So yes, there are some actions which are not in accordance with international law,” Borrell said.
His words immediately made headlines and set some distance between Brussels and Washington, where the political establishment tends to avoid open criticism of Israel. Asked about Borrell’s remarks, Haim Regev, Israel’s Ambassador to the EU, said his country “cannot fight against terrorists” with its hands “tied” behind its back.
“We are going to be very tough, we are going to be very aggressive. We will do all it takes to release the hostages and to eliminate Hamas,” Regev told our colleague Sándor Zsíros. “We will do our best not to harm innocents. We will do all of this. We are a democratic country. We are bound to international law.”
The following day, EU spokespeople had adapted Borrell’s words as the official line but still struggled to explain to exasperated reporters where exactly the line was between legal and illegal acts in an unpredictable, ever-changing war.
Meanwhile, far from the peaceful life of Brussels, where time for political reflection abounds, sheer horror continues to unfold at the heart of the Middle East.
IN PICTURES The most powerful images of the Israel-Hamas war. |
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The most powerful images of the Israel-Hamas war
