European leaders urged to fill void left by Brussels over Gaza war

European countries must take independent action against Israel or form coalitions of like-minded states to make up for the European Union's inaction, says former EU ambassador to the Palestinian territories Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff.

The absence of a collective stance on the war in Gaza grieves Mr von Burgsdorff and hundreds of colleagues.

The increasing opposition to Israel across Europe is unprecedented, he said, citing recent polls showing that 80 per cent of Germans oppose the war on Gaza. “It's the first time ever that there is such growing opposition to Israel in Europe after more than five decades of Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory,” he told The National.

Some believe that it may, in the long run, pressure politicians to take a tougher position towards Israel.

Mr von Burgsdorff has been co-leading a campaign to pressure European decision makers, including co-ordinating a letter signed by more than 200 former senior diplomats that was sent before a meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers on Saturday.

“If the EU cannot master the political will to act as 27 or even with qualified majority, then individual member states or groups of states must take up the baton,” he said. “They must try to pressure Israel to stop its completely unlawful actions, both in Gaza and the West Bank.”

“The Israeli government sees us as a given – a continent without hard decision-making procedures that they can play with divide-and-conquer tactics,” he added.

The International Court of Justice has outlined the “plausibility” of genocide and the illegality of trading with occupied Palestinian territories. The popular mood reflects this shift, unlike the bloc's leadership.

“It can only be explained because the framework and public opinion have shifted,” according to Mr von Burgsdorff.

Europe's teeth

The war in Gaza has been at the top of the agenda of the latest EU foreign affairs meetings, with a growing push to adopt measures to sanction Israel, but no decision has been taken so far. Last month, the EU Commission proposed to partially suspend Israel from a flagship European research programme.

The proposal has not formally been put for a vote, although Germany and Italy are reported to oppose the move, which would block its adoption. The National understands a vote may happen soon after Saturday's informal meeting in Copenhagen.

A spokesperson for the EU's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday said ministers would discuss measures that could be taken in response to Israel's breach of human rights in its military conduct in Gaza.

One option on the table is suspending trade preferences with Israel, which is likely to hurt the Israeli economy, since the EU is its first trading partner. “Israel would care if we use our economic leverage because we have teeth,” Mr von Burgsdorff said. In total, Ms Kallas suggested 10 options to member states in July. None have been adopted.

It remains likely that no concrete measures will be taken before the next formal meeting of EU foreign ministers in October. In the meantime, the letter, signed by 110 former EU ambassadors and senior staff and 99 former ambassadors from France, German and Italy, lists nine proposals that states could push forward with. It was addressed to EU leaders, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as to the heads of the bloc's 27 states.

Proposals include unilaterally suspending weapons exports to Israel, stopping funding to joint research projects with Israel if there is evidence they support illegal actions, and banning trade with illegal settlements. The letter also highlights that countries such as Slovenia have already taken some of those measures.

“We express our profound disappointment that, in response to the deteriorating situation in Gaza, no substantive measures have been taken by the EU to pressure Israel to end its brutal war, to resume vital humanitarian assistance by mainstream providers, and to dismantle its illegal occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank,” read the letter.

Ireland's Foreign Minister, Simon Harris, who has long campaigned for more EU action, said on X that he supported the proposals in the letter, describing it as a “vital, unprecedented intervention”. Yet Mr Harris is a lone voice in European politics, with other leaders, such as France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Friedrich Merz, insisting that they want to ensure that Israel does not become a pariah state.

It's a position that Mr von Burgsdorff described as “patronising”. “They completely misread the thinking of those calling the shots in Israel,” he said. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thinks he has the Germans in his pocket. He doesn't care what public opinion says. He thinks he can continue as long as he has the support of the US administration.”

Shared responsibility

Mr von Burgsdorff, a German citizen who retired as EU ambassador to the Palestinian territories in July 2023, argued that by not taking decisive action far earlier in the Israel-Palestine conflict, Europe also bears a responsibility for the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks against Israel that killed around 1,200 Israelis.

“We are also responsible for October 7 because of decades of inaction, of decades of looking the other way, of decades of not holding Israel – our closest ally in the Middle East – to task, of decades of not insisting enough on proper political and governance reform in the Palestinian nomenclature,” he said.

More than 62,819 Gazans have died in Israel's retaliatory war. Famine is widespread in the enclave, according to the UN. Ceasefire talks have hit a dead-end and Israel now plans to reoccupy Gaza city.

Mr von Burgsdorff also criticised the EU’s failure to press the Palestinian Authority on overdue elections, arguing that the cancellation by President Mahmoud Abbas of the 2021 vote – citing the inability to hold elections in East Jerusalem – was an excuse to hold on to power.

The US administration was clearly against elections, and decision makers in Brussels and in member states were hesitant to pressure the Palestinian Authority, he said. “This is understandable, I think, because it was politically unfeasible to condition aid to the Palestinians on holding elections in the face of the bloc's refusal to also pressure Israel on human rights violations.

“One needs to discuss with a sufficient degree of analytical distance what actually happened on October 7, why it happened, how it happened, and what unfolded. An independent international investigation is a must when the war has come to an end,” Mr von Burgsdorff added. “But in my mind there is no doubt that the international community has ignored for far too long the root causes of the Israel-Palestine conflict”.