VP/HR — Why is the EU supporting Israel's systematic brutality?

17.12.2014

Question for written answer P-010914-14
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 130
Merja Kyllönen (GUE/NGL)

Over the past year thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombing raids on Gaza. It is clear that Israel has been deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in order to increase the impact of its armed strikes. Israel has, moreover, announced its intention of expanding its illegal Jewish settlements — with all the expropriation of Palestinian land which that entails — and forcibly relocating large numbers of Bedouin in occupied Palestinian parts of the West Bank.

While the EU has been employing tough foreign and trading policy tactics against Russia and condemning Russian actions in Ukraine, its trade ties with Israel have remained unchanged, in spite of Israel’s repeated violations of international law and human rights. The EU has continued to pursue trading relations with Israel under the association agreement. It is also supporting Israeli wrongdoing by allowing trade with illegal Israeli settlements and granting research funding to Israeli armaments manufacturers.

The EU should take effective practical steps to ensure that Israel can be brought to justice for its war crimes and offences against international law for as long as it refuses to obey the law and recognise the rights of the Palestinian people. The EU-Israel association agreement should be suspended immediately. The EU should likewise prevent research funding, under the Horizon 2020 programme, for example, from being channelled towards the Israeli arms industry. In addition, political pressure should be exerted to make Israel end the forced relocation of Bedouin as the EU Foreign Affairs Council has called for.

Why is the EU turning a blind eye to what is happening in Palestine? As regards its foreign and trading policy, why is it failing to take a harder line expressing condemnation of Israel’s actions?