Once again, MEPs were divided on the position to adopt towards Israel during a plenary debate on Tuesday 23 April on ‘The EU response to the repeated killings of humanitarian workers, journalists and civilians by the Israeli Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip’.
According to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, since 7 October 2023, at least 249 humanitarian workers, including 178 UNRWA employees and around 100 journalists and media professionals, have been killed.
Describing the situation in Gaza as a “catastrophe”, Evin Incir (S&D, Swedish) said that in the modern world, seeing “250 journalists and humanitarians killed” was “a disgrace to humanity”. “We have to do everything we can to stop it”, she explained.
Jordi Solé (Greens/EFA, Spanish) described the situation as “a tragedy with no end in sight”. “International justice must rule on war crimes committed by all parties, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice” he stressed.
Hilde Vautmans (Renew Europe, Belgian) pointed out that “humanitarians, journalists and civilians can never be targets of war; war has its rules”. She hoped that the EU High Representative had made it clear to Israel that failure to change its position would damage EU/Israel relations. During the debate, many MEPs, mainly from the left, called on the EU to adopt an arms embargo against Israel and to suspend the Association Agreement.
On the right of the political spectrum, some MPs defended Israel. For the EPP, Antonio López-Istúriz White (Spanish) recalled that Israel had acknowledged that the attack on the seven aid workers at World Central Kitchen was a “terrible mistake”, and that the investigation would ensure that it could not happen again. “We should be concentrating on what we can do to reduce suffering in the Middle East, and that won’t be done by just accusing Israel of genocide”, he warned, describing this as irresponsible.
During the debate, several MEPs accused Israel of genocide. For Manu Pineda (The Left, Spanish), Israel is a “tumour” in the Middle East, which is “metastasising” and “wants to turn this genocide into a regional conflict”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)