On Monday 27 May, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that he had obtained the agreement of the Ministers to propose to Israel that an Association Council be held.
“We got the necessary unanimity to call for an Association Council with Israel to discuss the situation in Gaza, respect of human rights under the obligations that Israel has assumed under the Association Council and how they plan to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice”, he stated at the end of the EU Council, recalling that an agreement had not been possible at the last EU Council.
The Court’s decision has no effect for the time being. The High Representative called on Israel to comply with the judgment of the International Court of Justice and to halt its offensive in Gaza. He denounced the fact that as soon as the verdict was delivered, Hamas had fired rockets into Israel and the Hebrew State had stepped up its operation in Gaza. The High Representative said he was “shocked” by the news from Rafah that Israeli strikes had killed around forty people, including children. “There is no safe place in Gaza. These attacks must stop immediately”, he warned. “We cannot defend the Rule of law at international level without supporting the decisions of the ICJ”, said Mr Borrell, while questioning the means that the international community can use to ensure that the decision is respected.
The High Representative also called for an end to Israel’s blocking of financial support for the Palestinian Authority. “This could kill the Palestinian Authority through economic and financial suffocation”, warned Mr Borrell. The day before, at a ministerial meeting in Brussels, Palestine’s international partners, including the EU, had expressed the view that there was an urgent need for a reversal of Israeli policies that are damaging the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian economy, and for a strengthened political and economic partnership between the international partners and the Palestinian Authority, including increased financial assistance. “No support plan can replace the transfer of taxes belonging to the Palestinian Authority”, warned Mr Borrell.
See the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/ce1
Mr Borrell also called on Israel not to consider UNRWA a terrorist organisation, which would prevent it from acting in Gaza and the West Bank. He also announced that the EU would be disbursing a second tranche of aid to the UN agency this week.
EUBAM Rafah relaunched
The High Representative also announced that he had received the green light from the Ministers for the reactivation of the European Union Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah), which “could play a useful role in supporting the passage of people” and enabling the entry of humanitarian aid. This will have to be done in agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Egypt, added Mr Borrell. In his view, an EU mission could act with sufficient neutrality to be accepted by all parties. “We will not do it alone, we will not be the subcontractors of border security. (...) We will do so with a clear political understanding of the role of the Palestinian Authority”, he explained. He added that he was preparing the capacity to do so, if the political conditions were right.
Created in 2005, the mission has been at a standstill since 2007, when Hamas came to power in Gaza.
Strengthen international cooperation
The EU27 Ministers also met with their counterparts from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt and the Secretary General of the Arab League to discuss the situation in the Middle East in order to better understand their position and to see how to strengthen cooperation, particularly on the political resolution of the conflict and humanitarian support for the people of Gaza.
According to Mr Borrell, the Ministers of the Arab countries have suggested the possibility of organising an international conference on this subject.
And one of the suggestions the Arabs made to us was to consider the possibility of an international conference entitled ‘How to implement the two-State solution’. “It is no longer a question of discussing whether or not to have a two-State solution, but of how to implement it”, explained Mr Borrell. According to the High Representative, this conference proposal could be combined with the European Council’s proposal to organise an international peace conference.
The day before, at the end of a meeting on the two-State solution, including recognition of the Palestinian State, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, pointed out that “the viability of a two-State solution is being undermined every day, and has been undermined for several years”. In his opinion, this is why certain measures are necessary. “Bilateral recognitions (of the State of Palestine) are not just symbolic, they reinforce the viability of the two-State solution”, he added.
For his part, Mr Borrell made it clear that recognising the Palestinian State was not “a gift to Hamas”. “Blaming these countries because it is something that could be seen as supporting terrorism or representing an anti-Semitic approach is completely irrelevant”, he denounced. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)