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josep borrell
Why the EU Must Honor ICC Arrest Warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu
Ensuring the ICC has the ability to implement arrest warrants will require defending the court against external pressure and coercive measures—including from powerful governments like the United States
Nov 29, 2024
After the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and a Hamas official on November 21, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell immediately made clear that ICC “decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States.” His response is a reminder of the EU and its member states’ firm policy of supporting the ICC, especially when it comes to enforcing arrest warrants.
Over the years, the EU and its member states have developed several policies and practices building on their obligations to the court to support arrests before the ICC. This includes EU governments affirming their obligation as ICC members to carry out ICC arrests within their borders and supporting other ICC member countries to uphold their obligations.
Despite this, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is subject to one of the warrants, to visit Hungary and said he will not enforce the arrest warrant. Some other EU countries have not explicitly committed to enforcing the warrant, despite confirming their support for the ICC. This deepens perceptions of double standards in support of justice before the ICC.
To ensure EU member countries stand firm for justice across all the ICC’s cases, we outline the EU’s obligations and policies as they relate to arrest strategies in a new briefing paper. Firm state support can yield progress. Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted by the ICC on allegations of serious crimes in Ukraine, recently stayed away from the G-20 summit in Brazil, an ICC member. But challenges for ICC arrests will likely remain. While Putin did not go to Brazil, he did visit Mongolia, also an ICC country, without facing arrest. This was rightfully challenged by the EU and before the court’s judges.
Each of the court’s pending warrants poses specific challenges, and failure to execute them breeds a climate of impunity. Recent attempts to undermine the ICC, including by Israel and Russia, and threats of sanctions by US lawmakers risk undoing investments by the EU and its member states in the court.
Ensuring the ICC has the ability to implement arrest warrants will require defending the court against external pressure and coercive measures. That means that right now EU support for arrests should include preparedness to adopt measures to protect the court from possible US sanctions.
The stakes are high, but when the EU takes a prominent role in supporting the court in partnership with justice-supporting governments globally, it can positively impact even the most difficult circumstances.
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Fears of 'Imminent Catastrophe' Mount as Hezbollah Hits Back Amid Israeli Airstrikes
"It cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer," said one U.N. official.
Sep 22, 2024
Fears of an all-out Middle East war mounted Sunday as Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, whose military continued bombing targets in southern Lebanon while moving troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the northern border.
During a Sunday funeral speech for three members killed in Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared an "open-ended battle" with Israel was underway. Hezbollah is reeling from last week's unprecedented surprise attack on communication devices that killed dozens of people and wounded thousands more, as well as Israeli airstrikes on Beirut suburbs that have slain dozens of Lebanese including women and children and injured scores more.
The dead include senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
"We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained, you will also be pained," Qassem told mourners at Aqil's funeral, directing his remarks to Israel.
In Israel, air raid warning sirens blared warnings of incoming Hezbollah rocket fire that penetrated further south in Israel than at any time in nearly two decades, sending residents scrambling for shelters. Israeli media reported 13 people injured—one of them seriously—and heavy damage to homes and cars.
As officials closed schools, limited gatherings, and ordered hospitals to move patients in the north, the Israel Defense Forces moved troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the border with Lebanon. Numerous social media posts said Israeli reservists had received emergency call-up orders, known as Tzav 8s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his far-right government would "take whatever action is necessary to restore security" in the northern part of Israel.
"No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities," he said. "We can't accept it either."
Hezbollah said it would not stop fighting until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, for which it is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations envoy for Lebanon, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "with the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer."
European Union foreign policy chief and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell
said on social media Sunday that "the E.U. is extremely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon, following Friday's attacks in Beirut and the increasing cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah."
"Civilians on both sides are paying an enormous price," Borrell added. "An immediate ceasefire is needed."
In the United States, White House national security spokesman John Kirby
told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that the Biden administration—which supplies Israel with billions of dollars in arms and diplomatic cover—is "involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy."
"We want to make sure that we can continue to do everything we can to try to prevent this from becoming an all-out war there with Hezbollah across that Lebanese border," he added. "We still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here."
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Top EU Diplomat Warns Israeli Impunity Will Lead to West Bank Becoming 'a New Gaza'
"Against this backdrop, it is clear that the prospect of a two-state solution—which we have been ritually repeating—is receding ever further while the international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act."
Sep 10, 2024
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday urged the international community to stop "radical members of the Israeli government" from thwarting Palestinian statehood and prevent Israel from turning the illegally occupied West Bank into "a new Gaza."
Speaking to attendees of an Arab League conference in Cairo, Borrell lamented that a Gaza cease-fire agreement "has still not been signed and does not seem likely to be signed in the near future."
"Why? Quite simply, because those who are waging the war have no interest in putting an end to it," he continued. "So, they are just pretending... Because, as it turns out, their intransigence is accompanied by total impunity."
"If acts have no consequences, if blatant violation of international law remains disregarded, if institutions such as the International Criminal Court are threatened, if the International Court of Justice rulings are totally ignored by those who promote a rules-based order, who can be trusted?" Borrell asked.
"Not only is there no pause in the war in Gaza," he noted. "But what looms on the horizon is the extension of the conflict to the West Bank, where radical members of the Israeli government—Netanyahu's government—try to make it impossible to create a future Palestinian state."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his far-right government have openly
boasted about their efforts to derail the so-called "two-state solution," and Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in July to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.
Borrell asserted that "a new front is being opened with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza—in rising violence, delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority, stimulating provocations to react forcefully, and not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza."
Since last October, Israeli soldiers and settler-colonists have killed more than 600 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including more than 140 children. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks including multiple deadly pogroms, during which Israel Defense Forces soldiers stood by, protected, and even joined the attackers.
"Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza," Borrell stressed. "And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers' movements are preparing new settlements."
"Against this backdrop, it is clear that the prospect of a two-state solution—which we have been ritually repeating—is receding ever further while the international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act," Borrell added.
"What can we do?" he asked, continuing:
We need to raise our voice at the next [United Nations General Assembly] and prevent a sort of "Gaza fatigue," which will embolden the extremists and postpone once again the idea of a political settlement. We have to launch a process where all parties who want to work on an agenda—a concrete and practical agenda to implement the two-state solution—can work together.
Second, we need to revitalize the Palestinian Authority to support their reform process, but also to support [them] financially.
Third, [we have] to facilitate all attempts at dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.
Fourth, [we must] not give up on engaging with Israeli civil society, even in this context—and especially in this context. Everyone, not just the Europeans—Palestinians, and Arab civil society, must do it. I know how difficult it is to reconcile both narratives, but it is the only way to move forward...
Fifth, the Palestinians have to reach a common vision, to overcome their divisions, because the more these divisions exist, the more they undermine the legitimacy and representativeness of the Palestinians.
Sixth, the Europeans need to adopt a common approach. That is what I am working tirelessly on, even if the success is limited, because I have never seen such a dividing issue among the Europeans as the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Seventh, the Arab States need also to adopt a truly common approach [to] coordinating and showing solidarity.
"All in all, it means building a balance of power on realistic foundations for the two-state solution—before it becomes, definitely, too late," Borrell concluded. "I know, it is extremely difficult. However, we must never give up."
Last month, Borrell called for sanctioning Israeli leaders for hate speech and inciting war crimes in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank. He has also called for an arms embargo on Israel.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom has been assassinated—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since October 7, when the Hamas-led attack on Israel left more than 1,100 people dead—some of them killed by so-called "
friendly fire"—and over 240 others kidnapped, Israeli forces have killed at least 40,988 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children. At least 94,825 other Palestinians have been wounded. Almost all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, while Israel's "complete siege" has starved and sickened people across the enclave, with dozens dying of malnutrition.
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EU's Top Diplomat Seeks Sanctions on Israeli Leaders for 'Incitement to Commit War Crimes'
While welcoming the move, one Amnesty International campaigner asserted that "the E.U.'s call for a cease-fire and curbing settler violence rings hollow until it takes concrete action."
Aug 29, 2024
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Thursday that he has recommended sanctioning Israeli leaders for hate speech and inciting war crimes in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank.
Borrell said during a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels that he has asked member states if they support imposing sanctions on some Israeli Cabinet ministers who have disseminated "unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians" and have proposed "things that clearly go against international law" and amount to "an incitement to war crimes."
Israeli ministers should be sanctioned by EU for inciting hate and war crimes against Palestinians, says @JosepBorrellF. #Gaza #WestBank #Israel pic.twitter.com/9N0oz0tdCX
— Georg von Harrach (@georgvh) August 29, 2024
At least one E.U. member said it supports Borrell's recommendation.
"This is a war against Palestinians, not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable," Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said Thursday in Brussels. "It's a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this."
"It cannot be business as usual," Martin added. "It is very clear to us that international humanitarian law has been broken."
Earlier this year, the Irish Senate voted to impose sanctions on Israel, prohibit the transfer of U.S. weapons to Israel via Ireland, and push for an international arms embargo against the country.
While E.U. nations such as Ireland, Spain, Norway, and Slovenia have been outspoken critics of Israel's Gaza onslaught and have responded with moves including recognizing Palestinian statehood, other members of the bloc—notably Germany and France—have been staunch supporters of Israel, even as its forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Gazans and displaced, starved, or sickened millions more.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has threatened "severe consequences" for European nations that recognize Palestinian statehood.
Like the United States—Israel's biggest international backer—the E.U. has imposed sanctions on a handful of far-right Israeli individuals and groups, including extremist settler colonists who incited deadly West Bank pogroms and an organization whose members have blocked humanitarian aid shipments from entering Gaza.
While Borrell did not publicly identify specific Israeli ministers he believes should be sanctioned, he has recently condemned the words and actions of far-right figures including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Ben-Gvir was widely condemned for defending Israeli soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian man detained at the notorious Sde Teiman prison and for taking part in a highly controversial visit to Islam's third-holiest site, the al-Aqsa mosque compound—which is located on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site. Ben-Gvir infuriated Muslims and other critics by declaring he wanted to "put an Israeli flag" and build a synagogue there.
Smotrich, who has also defended the alleged Sde Teiman rapists as "heroic warriors," has drawn condemnation for promoting new and expanded Israeli settler colonies in the West Bank, a policy he attributed partly to increasing international recognition of Palestinian statehood and the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) recent ruling affirming that Israel's 57-year occupation is a form of apartheid and illegal.
Statements by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich—who recently asserted that it may be "justified and moral" to starve 2 million Palestinians to death—have been entered as evidence in the South African-led ICJ genocide case concerning Israel's war on Gaza.
Borrell has mentioned some of the ministers' words and actions in previous calls for accountability for those who incite hate and violence.
"While the world pushes for a cease-fire in Gaza, Minister Ben-Gvir calls for cutting fuel and aid to civilians," he said on social media earlier this month. "Like Minister Smotrich's sinister statements, this is an incitement to war crimes."
"Sanctions must be on our E.U. agenda," Borrell added.
While human rights defenders welcomed Borrell's sanctions recommendations, some groups urged him to go even further.
"The [ICJ's] findings clearly point to violations of international law committed by Israel and to the obligations of third states not to legitimize or provide any assistance to Israel's illegal conduct," Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office, said on Thursday.
Geddie continued:
E.U. members states' supply of arms and equipment as well as their trade and investment with illegal Israeli settlements are enabling Israel's violations of international law and are contrary to their obligations under international law. There can be no business as usual with a state maintaining a brutal, unlawful occupation and perpetrating serious violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, on a mass scale.
The relentless bombardment of Gaza amid a clear risk of genocide, the deadly spike in state-backed settler violence, and the latest military offensive in the West Bank are all byproducts of Israel's unlawful occupation and decades of impunity enabled by E.U. inaction.
"The E.U.'s call for a cease-fire and curbing settler violence rings hollow until it takes concrete actions—an immediate arms embargo, a ban on trade with Israeli settlements, and support for action at the U.N. to bring an end to Israel's unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory," Geddie added.
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'No Longer on the Brink': Top EU Official Blames Israel for Famine in Gaza
"This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made," said Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s foreign affairs chief.
Mar 18, 2024
The European Union's top foreign affairs official on Monday said that after more than five months of Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid and bombardment of Gaza, the U.S.-backed government has pushed the enclave into famine.
Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, demanded that Western governments clearly state the reason that at least two of Gaza's five governorates have now been identified by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification global initiative (IPC) as experiencing famine "with reasonable evidence."
"In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine; we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people," Borrell said in Brussels at a meeting on humanitarian aid for the besieged enclave. "This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war."
"By whom? Let's dare to say by whom. By the one that prevents humanitarian support entering into Gaza," he said, adding that "Israel is provoking famine."
Borrell's remarks signify that the E.U. has now accepted that "that Israel is starving Gaza," said journalist Owen Jones, with "straightforward genocidal intent."
The IPC, which was established in 2004 by the United Nations and international humanitarian groups, said Monday that since the analysis it conducted in December—in which it warned of famine by May if a cessation of hostilities did not take place—the conditions needed to prevent such a catastrophe have not been met.
Famine in Gaza's northern governorates is now projected to take hold between mid-March and May, the IPC said.
"According to the most likely scenario, both North Gaza and Gaza Governorates are classified in IPC Phase 5 (famine) with reasonable evidence, with 70% (around 210,000 people) of the population in IPC Phase 5 (catastrophe)," said the initiative.
The group uses the famine classification when at least one of three conditions has been observed:
- At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food;
- At least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition; and
- At least two adults or four children for every 10,000 people die daily from starvation or from disease linked to malnutrition.
At least 27 children in Gaza have now died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to local authorities, as Israel has attacked civilians seeking humanitarian aid numerous times and has blocked deliveries.
The E.U. said Monday that just 100 tonnes of aid per day are reaching Gaza, compared with 500 tonnes that entered the enclave daily before Israel's current bombardment.
The entire population of 2.2 million people is now facing high levels of "acute food insecurity," according to the IPC.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, head of the pediatric department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, told Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) that the facility is seeing the daily effects of Israel's blocking of aid.
“Amid the famine in the north, there are many cases of elderly people and especially children showing symptoms of dehydration and malnutrition," said the doctor. "Twenty-five to 30 children are admitted to the hospital on a daily basis, with half of them suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. One child, two months old, died today because of dehydration and malnutrition. Other children are on the same trajectory unless the situation is addressed soon."
Meanwhile, he said, medical workers themselves are "suffering from physical weakness and extreme exhaustion" as they try to treat people injured in relentless bombings and gunfire.
“As a medical team managing the hospital, we have not been able to secure even one meal," said Abu Safiya. "Our staff are worn out working 24/7 without food."
Borrell pointed to recent comments by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Scholz warned: "We cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve."
"This famine is not a natural disaster. It is not a flaw. It is not an earthquake. It is entirely man-made," said Borrell. "Chancellor Scholz is saying Europeans cannot sit and watch Palestinian starving, when on the other side of the border there is food for months accumulated in stocks, while on the other side of the road there are people dying of hunger."
Rose Caldwell, CEO of children's rights group Plan International, added that the "entirely man-made catastrophe should be a source of shame for the international community."
"After months of unimaginable trauma and indiscriminate bombing, the children of Gaza are now facing the horror of starvation and the threat of imminent famine," said Caldwell. "There can be no excuses: preventing access for humanitarian aid is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is illegal and immoral."
The IPC has classified only two other humanitarian crises as famines: one in Somalia, which killed 490,000 people in 2011, and one in South Sudan, which killed 80,000 people in 2017.
At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces since it began its bombardment.
"Before the war, Gaza was the greatest open air prison," said Borrell. "Today it is the greatest open air graveyard."
Melanie Ward, CEO of MAP, noted that the organization warned in January that its physicians were seeing evidence of severe malnutrition in children.
"World leaders have fiddled at the edges rather than take decisive action which addresses the cause of this starvation," said Ward. "Now world leaders must insist that Israel immediately opens all land crossings into Gaza, particularly the Karni and Erez crossings, and allows safe and unfettered access for aid and aid workers."
"Children in Gaza are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever known," she added, "and their survival depends on more food, fuel, and water entering Gaza immediately, as well as a lasting cease-fire."
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Majority of Americans Want Halt of US Weapons Bound for Israel: Poll
"Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to," said one analyst.
Mar 05, 2024
A new poll released Tuesday revealed that a majority of Americans want to the U.S. government to stop supplying the Israeli military with weaponry to carry out its brutal assault on Gaza that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians, most of them civilian men, women, and children.
As organizers called on Democratic voters in at least seven states to vote "uncommitted" on their Super Tuesday primary ballots on Tuesday to help push the Biden administration to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, the YouGov poll provided another measure of Americans' growing outrage over their government's material and political support for the "genocidal" campaign by Israel's far-right government.
Commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the poll of 1,000 U.S. adults asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement: "The U.S. should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza."
Fifty-two percent of people said they agreed with the statement, while just 27% said they disagreed.
CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot noted that while the call for a cease-fire "can mean different things to different people... the support for halting weapons shipments is specific and unambiguous."
Less than two weeks after scientists projected that at least 6,500 people would likely die in Gaza in the coming months even in the case of an immediate, permanent cease-fire, Weisbrot said many Americans may have "already moved past" the idea that a cease-fire is sufficient.
"Support for stopping U.S. weapons shipments to Israel has gained traction in recent days," noted CEPR, "as the Gaza death toll has surpassed 30,000 people, about two-thirds of them women and children."
Since the Biden administration's approval of weapons shipments to Israel since October, Israel has decimated civilian infrastructure across Gaza while also blocking nearly all humanitarian aid, leaving the entire population facing "crisis-level hunger" that is approaching famine in some areas.
"We have the power to stop this. Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to," said Weisbrot, posting a video of European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell calling on U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders to "provide less arms" to Israel, considering Biden's stated belief that too many civilians are being killed.
We have the power to stop this. Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to. This is Josep Borell, the highest official of the European Union in charge of foreign policy, telling the United States government that they need to do something, like cut weapons… pic.twitter.com/F9y8zwgPxj
— Mark Weisbrot (@MarkWeisbrot) March 5, 2024
Tuesday's poll revealed that ending weapons shipments for Israel is popular across the political spectrum.
Sixty-two percent of people who voted for Biden in 2020 agreed that the U.S. should end shipments, while only 14% disagreed.
CEPR pointed out that "Among those who did not vote in the 2020 presidential elections—a key group containing voters that both Democrats and Republicans would like to turn out this year—fully 60% agreed that the U.S. should block weapons shipments."
The latter result is one "that the Biden campaign should be worried about," said Weisbrot. "These are the voters Biden needs to turn out to expand his base."
People who voted for former Republican President Donald Trump in 2020 were the only group in which a majority opposed halting weapons shipments, with 55% saying the shipments should continue. Thirty percent said they should stop.
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EU Foreign Policy Chief to World Leaders: 'Stop Saying Please' and Cut Off Arms to Israel
"If you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed," Josep Borrell said in remarks directed at U.S. President Joe Biden.
Feb 12, 2024
The European Union's top foreign policy official said Monday that the Biden administration and other governments professing concern about the grisly death toll in the Gaza Strip should stop supplying so much weaponry to the Israeli military as it carries out one of the most devastating bombing campaigns in modern history.
Pointing to U.S. President Joe Biden's statement late last week that Israel's war on Gaza has been "over the top," E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said during a press conference in Brussels, "Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed."
Borrell then extended that suggestion to the rest of the international community, saying if governments believe that "this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms."
"Everybody goes to Tel Aviv, begging, 'Please don't do that, protect civilians, don't kill so many.' How many is too many?" Borrell asked. "It is a little bit contradictory to continue saying that there are 'too many people being killed, too many people being killed, please take care of people, please don't kill so many.' Stop saying please and [do] something."
Watch:
Update: EU's Borrell on US+Israel:
"If you believe too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms"
"Everybody goes to Tel Aviv begging"
"Netanyahu doesn't listen to anyone. They're going to evacuate. Where? To the moon?"
"Stop saying please & do something!" pic.twitter.com/g8uiprUia2
— Rosie Birchard (@RosieBirchard) February 12, 2024
Shortly following Borrell's remarks, veteran Associated Press reporter Matt Lee grilled U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on what leverage the Biden administration has used thus far to pressure the Israeli government to protect civilians in Gaza.
Lee challenged Miller by saying that top U.S. officials, including Biden, standing up and "wagging [their] finger" at Israel was "not really leverage."
Miller responded by citing "the words of the president of the United States" and other diplomatic engagement—a reply that exemplified the approach Borrell urged nations to abandon.
Watch:
AP's Matt Lee: What leverage is US using?
State Dept spox Matt Miller: "The words of the President…matter"
Lee: "Over the top?' That's leverage?"
(2 days after Biden called Israel's behavior "over the top," it attacked the last refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians—killing 90+) pic.twitter.com/pEOKbQlCsb
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) February 12, 2024
The U.S. is by far the largest supplier of arms to Israel, but other countries—including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands—have provided the country with weapons and other military equipment deployed during its ongoing assault on Gaza.
On Monday, a Netherlands court ordered the Dutch government to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing the "clear risk" that the warplanes "might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law." The government said it would appeal the ruling to the nation's Supreme Court.
Borrell's call for restrictions on weapons transfers to Israel came weeks after a coalition of leading humanitarian organizations urged all countries to impose an arms embargo on Israel and Palestinian militants, declaring that "all states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians."
The U.S. Senate over the weekend advanced legislation that would provide Israel with over $10 billion in military assistance on top of what the Biden administration has already provided since the Hamas-led attack on October 7. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the lone member of the upper chamber's Democratic caucus to vote against advancing the bill.
In the E.U., the foreign ministers of 16 countries received a letter from human rights groups on Monday urging them to do everything in their power to ensure Israel complies with the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) interim order, which requires Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.
"Furthermore," the letter reads, "the E.U. and its member states must call for a cease-fire to ensure that no genocidal acts might be committed by the state of Israel and ensure that they do not cooperate on potential genocidal acts by suspending arms trade with Israel."
Pressure on governments to stop providing arms to the Israeli military is growing as the Netanyahu government prepares for an invasion of Rafah, a small Gaza city to which more than a million displaced Palestinians fled in an attempt to find refuge from incessant Israeli airstrikes.
During Monday's press conference in Brussels, Borrell criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to forcibly "evacuate" Rafah's civilian population.
"They are going to evacuate. Where, to the moon?" he asked. "Where are they going to evacuate these people?"
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Top EU Official Slams Settlement Expansion Funds in Israeli Budget
"This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer," wrote Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign affairs chief.
Nov 27, 2023
The European Union's foreign affairs chief on Monday said he was "appalled to learn" that Israel's wartime government is preparing to vote on a budget plan that includes money for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has grown in recent weeks amid Israel's assault on Gaza.
"In the middle of a war, the Israeli gov is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements," Josep Borrell, the E.U.'s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, wrote on social media. "This is not self-defense and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are a grave [international humanitarian law] breach, and they are Israel's greatest security liability."
Borrell was referring to settlement funding included in an end-of-year budget proposal that Israel's war cabinet is expected to approve on Monday. Under the proposed budget, funding would be allocated to West Bank settlement construction as well as to arming "civilian guard squads," according to a summary highlighted by Itay Epshtain of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
"Funds allocated to settlement local and regional councils allow for the purchase of off-road vehicles, body armor, camera-quipped UAVs, and other electronic surveillance equipment, and the employment of 'reconnaissance personnel,'" Epshtain wrote. "This is a militia of Israeli settlers mandated to obstruct humanitarian aid to Palestinians made vulnerable by the establishment and expansions of these very settlements."
BREAKING: these are the special budget allocation #Israel's government will vote on at 1800 hrs, confirming the following (for 2023 alone, with 5 weeks left to implement):
* 94.3 million ILS for settlement construction
* 39 million ILS for "search and destroy" of @eu_echo… pic.twitter.com/468VbR7eaE
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) November 27, 2023
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right supporter of settlement expansion, defended the budget proposal and denied that any of the money would go toward constructing new settlements.
"There is funding for security needs" in the West Bank, Smotrich told The Times of Israel, describing Palestinians in the territory as "Nazis."
The budget proposal sparked backlash from inside the Israeli government, with Knesset member and former opposition leader Benny Gantz demanding the removal of all "political payouts," including settlement funding, Reuters reported Monday.
"Under the coalition agreement Netanyahu struck with Smotrich and the heads of other religious and far-right parties after last year's election," the outlet noted, "billions of dollars are due to be set aside for ultra-Orthodox and far-right-wing pro-settler parties."
Middle East Eye reported Monday that leaked details of the budget "revealed an increase in funding for yeshivas by $133 million, as well as allocating $107 million to the National Missions Ministry, which is run by Smotrich's far-right party."
The budget fight comes amid growing alarm over deadly settler violence in the West Bank. Since last month, Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank.
"During the first eight months of 2023, settler violence soared to its highest level since the U.N. began recording this data in 2006; three incidents per day on average, up from two in 2022 and one in 2021," Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, wrote last week. "That rate has almost doubled since October 7."
"These abuses are a part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, as documented by Human Rights Watch and other Israeli, Palestinian, and international human rights organizations," wrote Shakir. "The roots of the violence in Israel-Palestine are multiple and run deep; ending the violence requires dismantling the systems of oppression that feed it, including in the West Bank."
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, echoed that message on Monday in response to the Israeli government's budget proposal.
"The settlements in the West Bank," she wrote on social media, "are part and parcel of the system of apartheid against Palestinian people, along with unlawful detention, torture, arbitrary killings, forced displacement, etc."
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Top EU Diplomat Says Israel’s Siege of Gaza Violates International Law
E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell added that collectively punishing Palestinians was "unfair and unproductive" and "against the interest of the peace."
Oct 11, 2023
Israel is violating international law by imposing a "complete siege" on Gaza, the European Union's chief diplomat said Tuesday.
E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell made his comments after a special meeting of E.U. foreign ministers to discuss Hamas' Saturday attack on Israel and Israel's military response, as Reuters reported.
"Israel has the right to defend" itself, Borrell said, according to a video shared by The Guardian, "but it has to be done accordingly with international law, humanitarian law."
Borrell added that some of the steps Israel had taken so far—such as blocking food, water, and fuel from entering Gaza—ran counter to international law, as Politico reported.
"Not all the Palestinian people are terrorists," Borrell continued in the video. "So a collective punishment against all Palestinians will be unfair and unproductive. It will be against our interests, and against the interest of the peace."
Borrell also weighed in on a recent controversy surrounding E.U. aid to Palestine after European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi said on Monday that the European Commission would suspend its €691 million ($730 million) funding program to Palestine in the wake of the attacks. This led to protests from several member countries and a clarifying statement from Borrell that, while aid would be reviewed, a cessation of payments "would have damaged the E.U. interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists."
"The humanitarian situation is dire, so we will have to support more, not less."
On Tuesday, Borrell pointed to a growing number of casualties in Gaza and the internal displacement of 150,000 people. (As of Wednesday, Palestinian authorities put the toll at more than 1,000 killed and more than 5,000 injured, according to USA Today, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said that almost 175,500 had been forced to flee their homes.)
"The humanitarian situation is dire, so we will have to support more, not less," Borrell said.
He added that the E.U. did not have a relationship with Hamas, but that the Palestinian Authority was "our partner."
During his remarks, Borrell decried Hamas' "barbaric and terrorist attack that has caused so many casualties" (more than 1,200 as of Wednesday, according to USA Today), but added that Israel's counterattack on Gaza "will also cause human suffering."
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European Commission to Review But Not Suspend Development Aid for Palestine
"The suspension of the payments—punishing all the Palestinian people—would have damaged the E.U. interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists," said the bloc's foreign policy chief.
Oct 09, 2023
Following Hamas' deadly weekend attack on Israel, which responded with an assault of the occupied Gaza Strip, the European Commission explained in a statement Monday that it is "launching an urgent review" of development assistance for Palestine but "as there were no payments foreseen, there will be no suspension of payments."
Some journalists and observers described the move as a "U-turn" or "backtrack" given comments earlier Monday by European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi—who, as Reuters noted, "was nominated for his post by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a staunch ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
The commission—an executive arm of the European Union—is made up of commissioners from the 27 member states, including Várhelyi. He said on X, formerly Twitter, that "as the biggest donor of the Palestinians, the European Commission is putting its full development portfolio under review," with "all payments immediately suspended."
The Hungarian's comments about the €691 million ($730 million) program and related reporting provoked fierce condemnation. According to Politico, Jean Asselborn Luxembourg's foreign minister, "was the first senior European official to publicly break rank, criticizing Várhelyi's announcement."
Pointing to an upcoming emergency meeting, Asselborn told local media that "the decision on this is up to the member states and it is only on Tuesday that the foreign ministers from the 27 E.U. countries will meet to discuss it."
Reuters reported that Ireland, Portugal, and Spain also "publicly voiced alarm while other countries did so behind the scenes."
"The European Commission's decision to suspend all aid to Palestinians is a grave error," declared Ireland's Grace O'Sullivan, a Greens/European Free Alliance member of the European Parliament. "In light of the deteriorating situation in Gaza where E.U. funding supports hospitals, schools, and food program, we cannot and should not cut this lifeline for millions of people."
MSNBC journalist Mehdi Hasan said that "the collective blaming and punishment continues on both sides of the Atlantic."
Along with highlighting the official statement—which came hours after Várhelyi's initial remarks—Josep Borrell, a commission vice-president and high representative of the E.U. for foreign affairs and security policy, blasted the suspension idea on social media.
"The suspension of the payments—punishing all the Palestinian people—would have damaged the E.U. interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists," asserted Borrell, who is Spanish.
The commission said in its statement that it "unequivocally condemns the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel over the weekend," and "in addition to the existing safeguards, the objective of this review is to ensure that no E.U. funding indirectly enables any terrorist organization to carry out attacks against Israel."
"The commission will equally review if, in light of the changed circumstances on the ground, its support programs to the Palestinian population and to the Palestinian Authority need to be adjusted," the group added. "The commission will carry out this review as soon as possible and coordinate with member states and partners any follow-up action necessary."
The commission also noted that "this review does not concern humanitarian assistance provided under European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations," which European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič similarly stressed on social media.
"While I most strongly condemn the terrorist attack by Hamas, it is imperative to protect civilians and respect [international humanitarian law]," the Slovenian said. "E.U. humanitarian aid to Palestinians in need will continue as long as needed."
Meanwhile, according to The Associated Press, "the E.U.'s most populous member, Germany, and its neighbor Austria, said they were suspending development aid for the Palestinian areas for the moment."
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