The European Union should suspend its trade and institutional ties with Israel to deter war crimes that amount to genocide in the Gaza Strip, the UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine has said.
“Europe is the main trading partner - which accounts I think for 30% of Israel’s trade - so it has a huge power and it should use that power. In the end, this is not an option, it’s an obligation because Article 2 of that association agreement foresees the suspension in case of violations of human rights,” she added.
Albanese said the EU’s reluctance to use the measures in its power to hold Israel to account perpetuates Israel’s impunity and reveals a “disconnect” between Europe’s political class and the large portion of European society that has persistently called for a ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip.
She also said EU leaders need to take more concrete counter-measures against Israel, including revoking diplomatic recognition and targeted sanctions on government officials.
And so ? Are the civilians from Ukraine less worth than the civilians from Gaza ? What is the number at which the EU should do something then ?
I think you’re misinterpreting their point, europe may be slow to react, but they will. It is now past the level of civilian casualties, so the point about saying europe is slow is correct, but the tone of hopelessness is hollow.
Of course not. The point of sanctions should be that when the war crimes get so bad the comes financial pressure to stop doing them.
I agree. But the problem is to understand who is committing a war crime. In this situation, by the international laws, both side are committing a war crime, technically. So, who we should hit with the sanctions ?
By international law only israel has committed a war crime as it condones resistance against occupation by any means necessary.
Also the israeli blockade on Palestine is one of the most flagrant violations of humanitarian law and already “sanctions” Palestinians.
By international laws, also fighting without an uniform is a crime.
By international laws, you must not use human shields. The Geneva convention also stipulate that if you don’t apply it with me, you have no right to ask to be applied to you.
So, we are still sure that only one side is committing a war crime ? If not, why not ask also to the other side to respect the international laws.
And if we decide this is not a war but an act of terrorism, why we should ask to the victim side (in this specific occasion) to respect a law that do not apply to the situation and let the offending side to do what it want ? Only because they are playing dirty ?
Gaza has a border with Egypt and, as far as I know, Israel cannot do anything to close this border (aside attacking Egypt of course). So, at the minimum, we should also punish Egypt for blocking the Palestinians.
See the funny part here is that israel is the party that has ignored international law for the last 75 years. We’re doing some weird history reversal here by saying that it’s the Palestinians fault for not following it.
If israel had followed international law there would have never been retaliation from Gaza.
We do not of course. As we personally supply Egypt with weapons and billions in loans to keep their corrupt government in power to help israel surpress the Palestinians and the rest of the Egyptian population. Sisi is an American puppet.
I think that here both parts had always ignored international’s laws, so maybe we must begin to think that to solve the problem we must held accountable both parts (and I am not discussing who is guilty).
Against someone who political program and reason to exist is to destroy you ? How ?
Their reason to destroy israel is because it oppresses them. Palestinians have very clearly shown to be open to negotiations. These get shut down by israel because israel wants to expand their Lebensraum.
Case in point is the West Bank where peaceful Palestinians consistently get terrorized by israel. And Hamas is now starting to grow there.
This might come as a surprise but almost nobody is going to risk their lives fighting when they are not being oppressed.
So, about 20 years ago Israel left voluntarily the Gaza strip and give it to Palestinian, on the understanding that there will be peace, the Palestinian elect Hamas but somehow it is still Israel fault for being the oppressor.
The only problem is that Israel offered a peaceful way out, Hamas refused it. So now Palestinians have basically 2 choices: to be killed while being used as a human shields by their own people or help IDF to fight Hamas, with the risk of being killed but the possibility to build a better future for themself.