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Kysia hexter
Correspondent European Union
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Kysia hexter
Correspondent European Union
“EU: Sanctions Israel Now” stands on banners of a few dozen activists who have come to the conference center in Copenhagen where the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs meet. She cannot escape the “free, free palestine”, which blows over the square.
Whether it changes the ministers about sanctions against Israel. There have been concrete proposals on the table since the beginning of June. But so far there is insufficient support for, for example, suspending Israel’s trade benefits with the EU or partly discontinuing cooperation in scientific research programs.
At first glance, the discussion has been stuck for months. On the one hand, pronounced proponents of the Palestinian case such as Ireland and Spain demand much harder EU action.
On the other hand, Hungary and the Czech Republic for whom punitive measures are non -negotiable, even now that research shows that Israel no longer meets the conditions for cooperation with the EU. The majority of the 27 EU countries are somewhere in between.
The last time the ministers were together, at the end of July, EU-BuitenlandChef Kallas presented an agreement with Israel in which the country promised to admit much more help. Empty commitments, report aid organizations.
And so the pressure on the EU ministers is increasing. VVD member Ruben Brekelmans, after leaving Caspar Veldkamp, temporarily Minister of Foreign Affairs, tries to break the impasse. Together with his Swedish colleague, he wrote a letter in which they tell their fellow ministers that more must be done to make the Israeli government change course. They propose to set sanctions against violent settlers on the West Bank, and against ‘extremist’ ministers from the Israeli cabinet who protect these settlers.
Action from within
Although it is unclear whether there is sufficient support for measures among the ministers, others think the letter from Brekelmans is too soft. “He should have been much harder,” says Geert Heikens. He worked for European institutions for decades, including at the European Commission and as an EU ambassador in Guyana.
He is one of the more than 200 EU ambassadors and senior officials, now largely retired, who also wrote a letter prior to the meeting in Copenhagen. In it they call on the ministers to finally take measures against Israel.
“The need is so high,” says Heikens. “Think of suffering in Gaza. There is only one method to end that. If you also make an effort and unity in Europe to give Israel a clear message: stop it now!”
But unity is still far away, although several countries that so far did not want to know anything about action due to the ever -deteriorating situation in Gaza slowly but surely shifting. Germany for example.
If it is not possible to find European unity, countries have to work on their own with punitive measures against Israel, former EU ambassador Heikens and his fellow letter writers think. As options, they mention, among other things, an end of visa -free travel for Israelis and the disposal of products that come out of illegal settlements.
Copenhagen is also monitored from The Hague. If there are no EU measures, the outgoing cabinet is considering coming up with proposals for action against Israel.
