Killing Palestinians, by genocide and formalities

Israel used no formality in genocide. The EU, on the other hand, treats Israel with the utmost formality designed to help the settler-colonial entity achieve its genocidal aims.

Following a report on the EU-Israel Association Agreement, details of which show hesitant language: “There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israeli Association Agreement,” the EU has drawn up another formal delay – a list of punitive measures which member states are unlikely to agree upon, and none of which are effective in stopping the genocide in Gaza.

The measures are partial or full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, sanctioning Israeli ministers, military personnel or extremist settlers, restricting trade, a weapons embargo and suspending scientific cooperation.

News reports were quick to note that, “While many of these options have been discussed informally in recent months, this marks the first time they will be formally presented in writing.”

UN resolutions are inscribed, as is international law. Instead of protecting Palestinians, they proved detrimental to Palestinians. How much weight will meagre responses to an ongoing genocide carry?

The measures will be discussed on 15 July before the summer break. While EU diplomats indulge themselves in Western concepts of human rights, Palestinians will continue facing Israel’s bombing, and their territory shrinking further until they are gated up for further massacres. But of course, these scenarios will not disturb the summer break. Formality and feigned concern for Palestinians in Gaza will resume on Western schedule.

Israel does not care for formal presentations in writing. What is considers is the politics behind the writing. Last month, EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas outlined how the EU takes steps towards nothing – aiming for changes on the ground, then considering further measures. While the EU waited for ‘changes on the ground’, Israel delivered them – the Gaza Humanitarian Fund is altering both territory and demography, while the recently leaked plans to enclose Palestinians in so-called humanitarian transit areas will further Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans if implemented.

Unanimous agreement within the EU is impossible. While Spain has been the most forthright in urging the EU to take a stance, others oscillate between appeasing rhetoric or further assertions attempting to legitimise Israel’s genocide. Not to mention the fact that stopping a genocide should not even be debatable. If human rights legislation really exists to prevent violations from happening, genocide should be stopped without any debate.

The proposed EU measures will have no significant impact on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Article 2 of the agreement mentions ‘respect for human rights and democratic principles,’ both of which have been breached since the agreement was officially established in 2000.

All the EU can hope to achieve, and will not, is mitigating earlier damage that should have been tackled when it happened. Instead, both Israel and the EU remained in breach; the latter by supporting Israel’s security narrative at all costs and aiding the settler-colonial entity in its forced expulsion of Palestinians, normalised under the humanitarian paradigm. While the EU feels productive by writing measures on paper, formally, Palestinians continue to be massacred under Israel’s bombs and the EU’s formality.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250710-killing-palestinians-by-genocide-and-formalities/