IF THEY SURVIVE Donald Trump’s attacks, the international courts will not deliver their final verdict on Israel genocide in Gaza for several years. 如果國際法庭能夠在唐納德·川普的攻擊下倖存下來，那麼幾年內都不會對以色列在加薩的種族滅絕做出最終判決 By Josep Borrell

But for all those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, there can be little doubt that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and starving civilians after systematically destroying all the infrastructure in the territory.

In the meantime, settlers and the Israeli army are every day guilty of serious, massive and repeated violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

LEGAL OBLIGATION TO ACT
Those who do not act to stop this genocide and these violations of international law, even though they have the power to do so, are complicit in them.

This is unfortunately the case with the leaders of the European Union and those of its member states, who refuse to sanction Israel even though the EU has a legal obligation to do so.

The EU has many levers it could pull to exert significant influence on the Israeli government. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner and its main partner in investment and people-to-people exchange.

It is also one of its major arms suppliers. The association agreement between the EU and Israel, established in 2000 after the Oslo accords, is the most favourable of all those concluded by the bloc with third countries.

SERIOUS VIOLATION
In addition to zero customs duties on its exports of goods and services and visa-free travel for its citizens, the agreement gives Israel access to several major European funding and exchange programmes such as Horizon and Erasmus.

However, article 2 of this agreement makes it conditional on Israel’s respect for international law and fundamental human rights. Whether or not to suspend it is therefore NOT a choice that the EU can make at will.

Since the EU foreign affairs ministers found that Israel was not respecting these rights, EU leaders now have a legal obligation to suspend the agreement. Failure to do so would also be a serious violation of the association agreement with Israel.

FAILED TO USE ANY LEVERS
However, despite all my efforts to this end when I was high representative of the EU, and despite the dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the increasing violations of international law in the West Bank in recent months, the EU and most EU governments have so far failed to use any of the levers available to them to exert pressure on the Israeli government.

As a result, faced with the intransigence of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the EU has for more than a year and a half been unable to assert its commitment to fundamental human rights, its defence of international law and multilateralism, or its longstanding position in favour of the two-state solution.

This inaction has already seriously damaged its geopolitical standing, not only in the Muslim world but across the globe.

[Josep Borrell was the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy from 2019 to 2024. This is an extract of an essay published in the UK Guardian newspaper today. Link to full text attached.]