EU to review trade agreement with Israel over Gaza war

The European Union will review its agreement with Israel, governing political and economic ties, due to the situation in Gaza, E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday after a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels.

The meeting followed a Dutch demand to review the E.U.-Israel agreement. Kallas said a “strong majority” favored such a review, Reuters reported.

Diplomats said 17 of 27 E.U. members backed the review, which will determine if Israel is in compliance with the agreement’s human rights clause, according to the news outlet.

The review was proposed by Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, who wrote to Kallas in early May requesting the review. He praised the decision on Tuesday, calling it “a very important and powerful signal.”

Kallas told the press that the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic.”

“The aid that Israel has allowed in is of course welcomed, but it’s a drop in the ocean. Aid must flow immediately, without obstruction and at scale, because this is what is needed,” she continued.

Among those who did not back a review was Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who suggested the European Union could meet with Israel to raise concerns.

Kallas said E.U. sanctions against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria were ready, but have been blocked by one member state. That country is Hungary, diplomats, according to Reuters.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed Kallas’ criticism.

“We completely reject the direction taken in the statement, which reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing,” the ministry posted to X on Tuesday.

“Ignoring these realities and criticizing Israel only hardens Hamas’s position and encourages Hamas to stick to its guns,” the ministry said.

Israel has faced growing international pressure in recent days. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom suspended free trade talks with Israel and sanctioned Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

On Monday, Canada, the United Kingdom and France issued a joint communiqué expressing strong opposition to expanded Israel Defense Forces operations in Gaza and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the leaders of the three countries on Monday.

“By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed, and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, while inviting more such atrocities,” he said, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In June, a French- and Saudi-backed conference will take place at the United Nations in New York to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel opposes the creation of such a state. “We just tried a Palestinian state in Gaza,” Netanyahu said at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem in April. “You saw what that brought, right?”

© JNS