The EU and Israel’s common ground
The European Commission did not take long to capitulate to comments by Israel’s ambassador to the EU Avi Nir-Feldklein, who said that if the bloc wants to participate in the US plan for Gaza, it must lift the proposed penalties against Israel which EC President Ursula von der Leyen announced last month.
Within a few hours of Nir-Feldklein’s statement, EC spokesperson Paula Pinho said that the sanctions were “proposed in a given context, and if the context changes that could eventually lead to a change of the proposal.” Of course, the EU focused only on the ceasefire not on the Palestinian people’s political rights, so it is highly likely that the belated proposed measures will be reversed, despite the bureaucratic process that might be even briefer, given than there is no angering Israel with reverting to the status quo.
A peace deal, and one that serves Israeli interests, does not cancel out genocide. On the contrary, it rewarded Israel for genocide and consolidated its colonial structure to the detriment of the Palestinian people. The peace summit is far removed from the reality of Palestinians going back to their destroyed cities in Gaza, where bodies will be pulled out of the rubble. For those still alive, the ongoing historical trauma is now supplemented by the trauma of genocide. Every assertion of resistance, of how strong Palestinians have been in the face of genocide, carries the hidden human reality of people butchered by colonialism. Palestinians in Gaza have the whole picture at a steep price; diplomats at Sharm el-Sheikh had an agreement that profits from colonial genocidal violence. The discrepancy is so stark that the two diverging realities cannot be reconciled.
Back to Nir-Feldklein’s discourse of premeditated omission. There will be no “reset of EU-Israeli relations” because proposals are just proposals. The EU was careful not to jeopardise its relations with Israel; the bloc’s actions openly testified to its acceptance of genocide. But this is the Israeli narrative that sells – Israel was wronged, allegedly, by von der Leyen’s very late intention to penalise a colonial, genocidal enterprise, and the EU must now rectify its offence. Meanwhile, the entire world has seen what the pinnacle of technology and military might have contributed to Israel’s genocide. We have seen a population relentlessly maimed, burned alive, starved, blasted to shred, murdered, tortured for two years, and Israel expects centre-stage for non-existent victimhood in EU diplomatic relations.
Will the EU consider the “conditions” changed enough for a complete reversal of its proposals, even though Israel has still committed genocide in Gaza and the US deal leaves the door open for more? The EU’s participation in the plan indicates not only an acceptance of genocide, but also of its possible continuation, so what punitive measures is the EU envisaging? Will the EU penalise itself for the role it played in accommodating and supplying Israel with the political and military support for genocide? A pause in the current reality does not cancel out genocide, and the EU’s role in mutilating human rights marks it as Israel’s willing accomplice.
BLOG: In Paris, a meeting that will protect Israel’s colonial violence
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.