AhlulBayt News Agency: Former European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has condemned the bloc for its double standards over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, accusing member states of hypocrisy for failing to hold Israel accountable, unlike the swift sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
“What [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has done in Gaza surpasses many war crimes we've condemned. Tens of thousands have died. If [Russiam President Vlademir] Putin had done this, we’d have sanctioned him more severely. The deaths in Bucha were counted in dozens. In Gaza, they’re counted in tens of thousands. There are horrors greater than others — and Gaza is one of them,” Borrel said in an interview with EUobserver online newspaper in Madrid.
He noted that Europe does not have moral credibility in West Asia, and no regional leader is going to waste a single minute listening to a European argument regarding respect for international law or humanitarian law.
“They would ask: “Who are you to lecture me?”’ Borrel said.
Borrell, who served as the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy until 2024, said anyone who criticizes the Israeli regime gets the label of being anti-Semitic.
“Being anti-Jewish is one thing and criticizing what the Israeli regime is doing is another entirely,” he said, emphasizing that the Tel Aviv regime’s allegations that the veteran Catalan socialist is anti-Semitic is such a baseless accusation that it’s not even worth addressing.
Borrell argued that the European Commission’s decision to suspend Israel from the Horizon research program is a bad joke.
“Research funding isn’t Israel’s core interests. We need stronger measures. For instance, suspending the trade association agreement,” he said.
“I also believe that Israeli society should pay a significant price for what the settlers are doing in the West Bank. I know that not all Israelis do this, but they allow it to happen. When the Oslo Accords were signed, there were approximately 100,000 settlers in the West Bank, and now there are over 700,000. According to international law, that’s illegal. For far less than this, we’ve removed visas for citizens of other countries,” the former diplomat pointed out.
Borrel also highlighted that the EU could be seen at some point as complicit in Gaza.
“A third of the bombs falling on Gaza are made in Europe. And there's a growing sense that inaction is starting to make us responsible for what’s happening. If Europe can’t act because some won’t allow it to, some are beginning to say: listen, someone has to be held accountable. But I don’t think it will stand in court,” he said.
“The feeling that exists today around the world, that Europe is not acting in the face of a clear case of massive human rights violations, is already coming at a cost,” Borrel emphasized.
He also dismissed the justification of Europe’s inaction given its historical responsibility in the Holocaust.
“But the Palestinians didn’t kill the Jews. I’ve said that to my German colleagues. That guilt shouldn't justify allowing Palestinian civilians to be killed today,” he commented.
Borrel stated that the current momentum to recognize Palestine is important, but it is symbolic.
“Recognition indeed strengthens the Palestinian position under international law. But then what? Many countries already recognize it, especially from the East. Western states must follow. France could trigger a domino effect,” he said.
He noted that a big part of the Israeli society thinks that the only solution is for Palestinians to leave or be exterminated.
Borrel concluded by saying that the EU must keep pushing, through law, diplomacy, and international institutions the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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