European patience with Israel is shrinking, but EU is not even on a modest sanction

Is the European patience with Israel, right? The United Kingdom will recognize Palestine in September, if Israel has not yet put an end to the ‘disgusting’ situation in Gaza, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday evening. France announced the recognition last week and wants to officially ratify that at the UN annual meeting in the fall.

The German, British and French Ministers of Foreign Affairs may fly to Israel on Thursday to insist on more help for Gaza, said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Germany is always extremely wary of criticism of Israel.

The Netherlands has carefully abandoned its traditional restraint and will argue in the EU to suspend an important part of the association agreement with Israel, said Minister Caspar Veldkamp (Foreign Affairs, NSC) on Tuesday evening. It is about agreements about trade. Veldkamp also called the Israeli ambassador on the mat and issued an entry ban on Monday for two Israeli ministers. Israel took the measures high and, in turn, summoned the Dutch ambassador. The House of Representatives now wants to come back from recess to talk about Gaza, where it was still unfeasible a week ago.

The European Union, hopelessly distributed on this point, met on Tuesday about a modest sanction against Israel – without immediate results. On the table was a carefully chosen suspension of part of the collaboration with Israel under the EU science program, Horizon.

A qualified majority is required for the measure that the European Commission has proposed. At the meeting of EU ambassadors of the Member States, that bar was not yet achieved.

The proposal is not yet off the table. Presumably will be released again in the mid -next week. A EU diplomat said that more and more countries are feeling for measures against Israel and said to hope that the European discussion will also help to increase the pressure on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in the meantime.

According to an EU diplomat, more and more countries are feeling for measures against Israel

At the request of the Netherlands, the EU had this spring investigated whether Israel was complying with the humanitarian obligations laid down in an association agreement. The European Commission then found that there were indications that Israel violated the agreements. The committee then established a list of possible punitive measures, but before it came to that, Israel promised to relax the import of help to Gaza. Israel, thus for two weeks in the nick of European measures. Last week, however, the committee noted that Israel does not comply with its promises.

Capital injections

If the proposal committee is adopted, Israeli tech start-ups that work on technology that can also have a military application (so-called dual-use technology) are no longer eligible for European money. The EU supports start-ups with loans and participations.

In recent years, Israeli companies received a total of 200 million euros from a special pot within the Horizon program intended for the development of new technology, such as AI and Drones, the European Innovation Council (EIC). The financing of fundamental research and PhD research, which also falls under Horizon, is not suspended.

In the meantime, Israel is still not generous on humanitarian aid. “There is a progress,” said an EU official, “but it is limited. We want to see a trend.” For example, it was agreed that four border crossings would be opened for relief supplies; There are, according to an EU source, only two.

Trucks

There is also confusion about the number of trucks with relief supplies that enter Gaza. For the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, there were 500 a day. Israel promised the EU last month that 160 would be entered every day. A EU source had on Monday 85, for this Tuesday Israel promised 200. A representative of the committee did not have access to Gaza on Monday. The committee would like to verify the transport of relief supplies itself.

The distribution of water would have improved and Israel has again ensured electricity with an important desalination installation. Whether enough fuel is available was not clear on Tuesday morning.

Battle breaks benefit the auxiliary transports, but the situation remains criticism. Real improvement can only come if Israel and Hamas agree on a ceasefire. However, the negotiations, led by Egypt, the United States and Qatar, were demolished.

Friendly countries

Horizon is a large framework program for science and development of the EU in which friendly countries can also participate. Israel has been participating in Horizon since 2021. A country has never (partly) been put out of the program.

The committee wants to cancel the cooperation “in view of the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, after the military intervention of Israel, the blockages of humanitarian aid and the violation of human rights, which can lead to a dramatic deterioration of the situation.”

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