On October 13, 2023, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen traveled to Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip, days after an attack by the radical Hamas movement against Israeli territory, where she demanded its release. The hostages were taken to the Palestinian border, where Israel said it had “the right to self-defense.”
But van der Leyen did not say a word about the nearly 2,000 deaths that followed the Israeli invasion of Gaza five days after the attack.
The position of the head of the European Commission, considered unilateral, was criticized within the Community and clashed with the consensus among the 27 EU countries, which recognized the right of self-defense but respected the rights of the Palestinian people.
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell later appeared to ‘correct’ the orientation of the 27, and even Charles Michel, president of the European Council, ‘moderated’ the statement, deepening the rift with van der. Leyen on this issue.
After weeks of questions from journalists about what the EU’s official position was, Borrell called an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers.
The official position was made clear: Israel had the right to defend itself, but it must always do so with respect for the Palestinian people.
At a time when the death toll in Gaza was growing exponentially, there were calls for a disproportionate military intervention, according to reports circulated by Palestinian officials and non-governmental organizations.
Two days after the Hamas attack, a second row arose over the EU’s support for the Palestinian people.
The European Union is the largest donor to organizations working in the Palestinian Territory.
On 9 October, the Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy, Oliver Varhely, announced that the European Commission would suspend all payments.
A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed the suspension later that day, but hours later, Janez Lenarcic, the commissioner in charge of humanitarian aid, contradicted Varheli and said the community administrator would continue to support the Palestinian people.
Later, the European Commission announced that it would investigate whether humanitarian aid money was inadvertently used to finance Hamas’s activities, without restricting support while the investigation is ongoing.
A third dispute involves member states and contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees in the Near East.
Earlier in the year, Israel announced that these United Nations employees participated in the October 7 attack and that they were assisting Hamas operations in the Gaza Strip.
Several countries in the community, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Estonia and Romania, immediately suspended contributions to the organization pending an independent investigation, despite appeals by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. .
Portugal, by contrast, announced an additional support of one million euros. Spain and Ireland did the same.
UNRWA was the subject of the greatest division among member states, with one part of the bloc, the majority, cutting funding while others maintained it and, in some cases, increased contributions.
After the initial controversy, Ursula van der Leyen withdrew from reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, leaving coverage of the war and the ongoing invasion of Gaza to Joseph Borel.
While the majority of countries have favorable positions towards Israel, only a few countries, such as Spain and Ireland, have rebelled against the methods used by Israel to fight the militants in Gaza from the start, criticizing the proportions of the military intervention.
As the number of civilians killed in Israeli bombings increased and Joseph Borrell issued harsh criticism, member states began to adopt the position that Israel could defend itself but must fully respect international humanitarian law.
The difficult positions to agree on at the first leaders’ summits were very clear, and today the EU’s position in Tel Aviv is that it has the right to self-defense, but it must fully respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians.
The tone of criticism of Israel’s military intervention has increased and the European Union has proposed sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank, another Palestinian territory under attack by the Israeli military, with expropriations, arbitrary arrests and, in some cases, killings.
Recently, the European diplomatic chief announced that sanctions are being considered against elements of the Israeli government for positions that call for genocide and attacks on the physical integrity of Palestinians, namely Itamar Ben-Ghir, an extremist settler.
On May 28, 2024, Spain, Ireland and Norway moved forward with the recognition of the State of Palestine, but are the only EU countries to move forward with this recognition to date.