On Tuesday, 23 July, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell felt that the EU needed to do more to find a solution to the conflict in the Middle East.
“Europeans, we have to do more”, he stressed during a conference organised by the ECFR on how the EU can support a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and a new Israeli-Palestinian political path. While reiterating that the European Union was already providing Palestinians with financial and humanitarian support, he explained that this was not enough.
“We need stronger political engagement”, he explained. According to the High Representative, the important thing is to seek a political solution. “Continuing to work while doing what is possible, making proposals—not to present something that already exists again but to propose a ‘white paper’ taking stock of what has happened and to ask questions—asking, and proposing will perhaps catalyse a deeper dialogue”, he explained.
He stated by way of reminder that Europeans had, given their historical responsibility, a duty to get more involved. Mr Borrell added that it is, moreover, in their best interest to have stability, peace, and prosperity in their neighbourhood. “It’s not in our [best] interest [for] Gaza [to] become ‘Mogadishu-sur-Mer’ [...]. And this may happen”, he warned. The High Representative also reiterated that Europeans had to be true to their principles—defending international law and protecting human beings—which are universal principles.
According to the High Representative, it is also important to mobilise Israeli and Palestinian civil societies and to explain to them that they have the same right to live in security and dignity. “Peace will not come if people [don’t] want [it]. And we have to overcome the hate”, he added, denouncing the growing lack of empathy that each side has towards the other.
For former Knesset speaker and author Avraham Burg who attended the debate, hope lies on an alignment of Israelis and Palestinians, “who say, ‘We are the ones, together, who believe in peace [and] in reconciliation, who believe that we must overcome the trauma and work together against the extremism in both societies, which has obstructed the hope and politics of both societies’”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)