Original title: ‘Moreel faillissement van onze buitenlandpolitiek’: organisaties woedend over uitblijven EU-sancties tegen Israël, from Dutch newspaper NRC. Translated using DeepL.
European sanctions
Amnesty calls the decision by EU ministers not to impose sanctions on Israel for the time being ‘one of the most shameful moments in the history of the EU’. Israel calls it a success.
Human rights and aid organisations reacted angrily on Tuesday evening to the European Union’s decision not to impose sanctions on Israel for the time being, despite violations of humanitarian law.
In a written response to NRC, Oxfam Novib referred to ‘a political charade’ in which ‘a few crumbs of aid are used to create the impression that there will be a substantial improvement in the terrible situation facing the Palestinian civilian population’. According to Oxfam, this reflects ‘the moral bankruptcy of Dutch and European foreign policy’.
According to Oxfam, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) continues to ‘hide behind European divisions over concrete actions against Israel’. According to the NGO, he uses these divisions as ‘an excuse for this cabinet not to fulfil its own international obligations’.
Postponement
Veldkamp himself told the ANP news agency that it was a ‘win’ that all measures the EU could take ‘remained on the table. There are member states, large and small, that would have preferred to remove such options from the table.’
Israel has been given more time by EU ministers to show that it is allowing sufficient aid to reach the starving population of Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the EU decision ‘an important diplomatic success’ on social media and thanked ministers who prevented sanctions.
Amnesty International states that the failure to impose sanctions, such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, will be remembered ‘as one of the most shameful moments in the history of the EU.’ It is ‘a cruel betrayal of the European project, which is based on the enforcement of international law.’
The director of human rights organisation The Rights Forum called the decision ‘cowardly and shameful’. ‘Israel is violating international law, but the EU once again does not dare to impose sanctions. This is not diplomacy and enforcement of international law – this is shameless complicity in genocide,’ said The Rights Forum.
The Dutch pro-Israel lobby group CIDI calls it ‘good to see that the EU is not bowing to anti-Israel hysteria’. According to CIDI, not imposing sanctions is ‘the only correct decision’.
Reactions in The Hague
In the Dutch political arena, the parties that have already criticised Dutch policy on Israel are particularly vocal. GroenLinks-PvdA [green/social democrats] MP Kati Piri says that ‘the moral authority of the European Union is evaporating’. Piri calls for national sanctions. CDA [christian democrats] MP Derk Boswijk finds the decision ‘incomprehensible’. ‘The Netanyahu government has so far shown little sensitivity to reasonableness.’
‘Ethnic cleansing is taking place in Gaza,’ writes D66 [social liberal] MP Jan Paternotte. ‘This way, Europe is allowing this to happen.’ ‘Shortly after commemorating the genocide in Srebrenica, European leaders announce that they will not take action against Israel,’ says Christine Teunissen of the Party for the Animals. ‘While we witness genocide in Gaza on a daily basis.’
I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what "doing the right thing" means here. Invading and forcing regime change like the US and various EU countries did in the past is not the right thing as it violates the countries sovereignity. systematically starving millions of people like with the sanctions against Iraq is also certainly not the right thing.
First the relationship between the countries have to be built in adherence with international law, then on this basis steps can be taken to work towards improved situations in the specific countries.
If sanctions against Israel for violating human rights is "doing the right thing", then it would imply sanctions against other countries for violating human rights as well. Basically that would mean some form of sanctions against the entire Middle East. Certainly that does not mean good relations with those countries.
Israel is violating other countries sovereignty and their rights as an entire people, in particular other people. This is different from the question of individual rights such as the right to freedom of speech or the abolition of the death penalty. The Iranian or Saudi regime sentencing dissenters to death is something that ultimately the Iranian and Saudi people have to resolve. Foreign interference is not going to resolve it. Obviously that means that military weapons, police equipment or the like must not be given to countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Israel on the other hand is illegally occupying Palestinian territories, subjugating the entire Palestinian people as a people to ethnic cleansing and genocide, waging multiple wars of aggression at the same time and murdering people outside its recognized territories. This warrants an intervention on the level between states.
Exactly. Even in the best case there are sanctions against them. Worsed case something like Syria, Sudan or Yemen is going on and they commit war crimes.