Geneva – The European Union's failure to take effective action to halt Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip represents a blatant breach of its international legal obligations, particularly its duty to prevent and punish genocide. This inaction enables the ongoing crimes against Palestinians, granting Israel de facto impunity and effectively rewarding its actions.
Such a failure strips the EU of any legal or moral credibility in its professed commitment to justice and human rights, while undermining the principles of accountability and the foundations of the international system.
During the recent Foreign Affairs Council meeting, the EU's 27 foreign ministers agreed to "keep a close watch" on Israel's adherence to a recent agreement to improve humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, while delaying discussion of ten proposed response options to Israel's actions in the enclave.
Reducing this horror to a temporary humanitarian crisis or a logistical matter of truck counts and crossing points exposes the emptiness of European rhetoric on values, dignity, and human rights
Lima Bustami, Director of Euro-Med Monitor's Legal Department
This position reflects a glaring lack of political will to apply meaningful pressure and highlights the persistent complicity of many member states, effectively granting Israel a green light to continue targeting civilians and destroying their means of survival.
The EU's repeated calls to "improve the humanitarian situation on the ground" are a blatant attempt to whitewash the image of the Israeli occupation, especially in the absence of any concrete or credible measures to fully open the crossings or guarantee a sufficient and safe flow of aid. This approach reflects more than mere inaction; it constitutes active complicity in engineering starvation. It also mirrors the bloody role of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose aid distribution centres have become sites of mass killing.
"At a time when entire families are being wiped out, dozens of children are killed daily, and a full-scale genocide is being carried out against a defenceless population, the EU's limited focus on sending food aid to Gaza amounts to a blatant betrayal of humanity and a failure to uphold its legal and moral responsibility to stop one of the gravest crimes of our time and ensure accountability for its perpetrators," said Lima Bustami, Director of Euro-Med Monitor's Legal Department.
Bustami continued: "Reducing this horror to a temporary humanitarian crisis or a logistical matter of truck counts and crossing points exposes the emptiness of European rhetoric on values, dignity, and human rights. It reveals the EU's actual position as not merely passive, but actively complicit in fuelling the machinery of killing and destruction."
"Gaza is not facing a food crisis, but a deliberate project of starvation, uprooting, and eradication," Bustami explained, "What is needed now is not merely an improvement in humanitarian conditions, but a principled political stance that defends what remains of the legitimacy of the international system, prioritises human life over political expediency, and is willing to bear a cost that is trivial compared to the obligation to protect an entire people from genocide."
"It also requires an end to the illegal occupation and apartheid regime, the prosecution of those responsible, and the dismantling of the deep-rooted structures of oppression imposed on Palestinians for decades. This duty rests not only with the EU as a whole but with each individual member state, even in the absence of a unified position," Bustami added.
Through both action and inaction, European governments continue to provide political and legal cover for Israel's violations, despite internal assessments and public statements recognising serious breaches of international humanitarian law, including acts that may amount to genocide.
The EU has conducted three formal reviews over the past year, assessing Israel's compliance with the "human rights" clause in Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. All three revealed strong indications of Israel's breach of its contractual obligations.
However, none of the EU's main institutions, including the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament, has activated any of the corrective measures available under the agreement, such as invoking Article 79 to adopt appropriate measures in response to violations, or initiating the dispute settlement procedures outlined in Articles 75 and 76.
Continuing to implement the EU-Israel Association Agreement and granting Israel preferential treatment in trade, research, culture, and education, while it commits serious and documented crimes, violates European legal frameworks and provides political legitimacy and material support that enable Israel to continue its actions against Palestinian civilians without accountability.
This pattern of relations, marked by the absence of legal consequences alongside ongoing political and economic cooperation, deliberately undermines the legal obligations of European states under international law, including the Genocide Convention, the Geneva Conventions, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, customary international law, and the Treaty on European Union.
EU complicity is deepened by double standards, as some European governments continue to issue pro forma statements condemning Israel's "disproportionate attacks" while simultaneously supplying it with weapons, military technology, and intelligence support. These actions are not acts of diplomacy but rather displays of propaganda that actively enable further Israeli crimes.
The recent sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom, Norway, and others on two Israeli ministers were selective and narrowly focused, addressing only statements related to the West Bank while ignoring the ongoing atrocities in the Gaza Strip. This approach reinforces a policy of impunity and shields those responsible for grave crimes from accountability.
The continued European silence is not due to negligence, but a deliberate political decision that reflects direct complicity. By prioritising interests and alliances over international law, these states become active accomplices in ongoing crimes, including genocide.
The EU has effective measures available to pressure Israel, including a comprehensive arms embargo, suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, sanctions on responsible officials and entities, a ban on settlement products, revocation of Schengen visa privileges, and immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. Its failure to employ these measures reflects a lack of political will, legal integrity, and moral courage.
Europe must go beyond treating the symptoms and work to address the root causes of the Palestinian people's ongoing oppression, now in its 77th year. This requires ending the Israeli occupation, dismantling the settlement and apartheid system, ensuring the right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees, and upholding the Palestinians' right to self-determination, freedom, dignity, and peace.
The European Union must cease its passive stance and move beyond expressions of "concern" to take concrete, practical steps to end its complicity and dismantle the mechanisms enabling ongoing Israeli crimes. This should begin with imposing individual sanctions on Israeli officials involved, collective sanctions on responsible institutions, suspending all cooperation agreements with Israel, including the EU-Israel Association Agreement, halting the export of arms and dual-use equipment, and freezing all technical and logistical support that directly or indirectly facilitates crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med Monitor calls for the activation of all available legal and political mechanisms within the EU to hold Israel accountable and end the policy of impunity that fuels and enables genocide. This includes invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of international crimes.
Concerning the obligation of accountability, the EU must actively support the International Criminal Court's efforts to prosecute Israeli officials responsible for atrocity crimes in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory. This includes ensuring the prompt issuance and execution of arrest warrants and rejecting all political interference aimed at protecting perpetrators. In parallel, EU member states must initiate domestic investigations, including against their own nationals implicated in such crimes, and activate universal jurisdiction to prosecute Israeli officials responsible for crimes against the Palestinian people, in line with their obligations under international law.
The EU must uphold its legal obligations under international law and use all its influence to halt Israel's crimes and protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Specifically, the EU must act without delay to exert effective pressure on Israel through the imposition of economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions to end its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including the Gaza Strip; to halt all military assaults; to lift the blockade; and to ensure the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, as well as the unconditional reconstruction of life-saving infrastructure and housing.
