The top foreign policy official of the European Union recently echoed a UN report that found that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine. “Starvation is used as a weapon of war,” Borrell noted, adding that Gaza has become a “graveyard for tens of thousands of people, and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.”
Borrell was expressing increasingly widespread frustration in some European quarters regarding Israeli conduct of the war in Gaza, but his comments do not represent the position of all EU member states nor the European Commission, where Borrell is also a vice president.
European splits over the war have been evident for some time. On Dec. 12, 2023, in a vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, 17 countries were in favor, eight – including Germany and Italy — abstained and two – Austria and the Czech Republic – opposed. More than three months later, disunity only appears to have widened. The EU Foreign Affairs Council – made up of the foreign ministers of member states – has not called for an immediate ceasefire despite the mounting death toll. The most urgent language so far came on Feb. 19, 2024, with a call for “an immediate humanitarian pause that could lead to a sustainable ceasefire.” Even this statement was not unanimous, as it was opposed by Hungary.
More evidence of division surfaced after Israeli reports that 12 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. The EU – which, through the European Commission, is the third largest contributor to UNRWA – immediately announced that it would review its funding of the UN agency, which provides key assistance to Palestinians. The commission in early March said it would go forward with funding, but at least 12 countries are withholding money until a full investigation is concluded. Among them are Germany, the second largest donor to UNRWA in 2022 after the U.S., the Netherlands, and Italy, which belong to the top 15 contributors to the agency.
Disagreement is also evident among the highest EU officials. While Borrell has openly criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza for months, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, has been much more sympathetic to Israel. In a visit to Israel on Oct. 13, 2023, that apparently was not coordinated with Borrell, von der Leyen expressed European solidarity with Israel after the Oct. 7 massacre. She did not couple these comments with a call for restraint in Israel’s military response even though some 1,400 Gazans had already been killed by then. By now, more than 30,000 Gazans have died under Israeli attack, the majority women and children.
Since her visit to Israel, von der Leyen has sought a more nuanced position but has continued to center her discourse around Israel’s right to defend itself, with only limited mention of the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza. Only on March 17, during a visit to Egypt, did she call for “an agreement on a ceasefire.”
The divergences between Borrell and von der Leyen can also be observed in their approach to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Borrell has repeatedly remarked that Israel needs to allow more trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza. Von der Leyen has focused her recent diplomatic efforts on establishing a maritime corridor to deliver aid, a more time-consuming and less efficient method.
The abysmal situation in the enclave is primarily the result of Israel’s decision to dramatically limit the number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza with humanitarian aid. Prior to Oct. 7, 500 trucks entered Gaza daily. The average in February was below 100. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has put in place procedures to inspect and clear trucks at only two crossings into Gaza. The process is unpredictable and opaque. As a result, very little food and other vital items make it into the territory. When they do, distribution is chaotic, especially in northern Gaza, due to the destruction of infrastructure, the desperation of the population, and Israeli attacks on aid convoys as well as the absence of Palestinian police and other officials, many of them killed or captured by Israel as linked to Hamas.
The EU could theoretically use as leverage a review of its trade agreement with Israel – which includes a human rights clause. Spain and Ireland – the first European country to call for an immediate cease-fire — have asked the EU to study this possibility, but at least six member states opposed the idea as of March 18. Another option would be stopping or conditioning arms exports to Israel. This would be in line with Borrell’s calls for the U.S. to sell fewer weapons to Israel if it considers the civilian death toll in Gaza too high.
Such a decision would be up to EU members, especially  Germany, which provided 30% of Israel’s weapons imports during the last five years, second only to the U.S. Berlin is highly unlikely to take such a step as Israel’s security is considered Germany’s Staatsräson (national interest, or, literally, reason of state) in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. In fact, Germany increased weapons exports to Israel tenfold in 2023, with a huge rise after Oct. 7.
Unable or unwilling to pressure Israel to stop its offensive, the EU has focused instead on alternative means of providing humanitarian aid with an announcement by von der Leyen on March 8 about establishing a maritime corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands – the largest EU donors suspending payments to UNRWA – are among those expressing support for the corridor.
The Israeli government has welcomed the maritime corridor initiative. The Spanish ship Open Arms, after departing from Cyprus, arrived in Gaza on March 15 with 200 tons of food. The operation was coordinated by the American NGO World Central Kitchen, whose personnel on the ground built a small pier out of rubble. In his recent State of the Union Speech, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a larger plan to build a temporary pier, but that is expected to take many weeks to activate. Von der Leyen remarked that the EU effort “can make a real difference to the plight of the Palestinian people.” However, the amount of food carried by Open Arms could be transported overland by 10 trucks, a fraction of what used to enter Gaza every day before Oct. 7.
Von der Leyen also said the EU would consider airdrops, but humanitarian agencies have consistently expressed the view that land routes are far more effective. The European focus on airdrops and sea deliveries risks shifting attention away from the leverage the EU has over Israel but declines to wield.
Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza by sea will also be inspected by the same Israeli authority, COGAT, that has obstructed deliveries by land. Humanitarian aid, without being accompanied by a durable cease-fire, can only achieve modest results. With limited influence compared to the US, the EU has further reduced its leverage over Israel because of its disunity.
Marc Martorell Junyent holds an MA in Comparative and Middle East Politics and Society from Tübingen University. He is a writer and researcher whose work has appeared in The New Arab, Jacobin, Responsible Statecraft, Democracy in Exile, and other publications.
European Disunity Undermines Leverage on Gaza
By Marc Martorell Junyent
Middle East & North Africa
The top foreign policy official of the European Union recently echoed a UN report that found that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine. “Starvation is used as a weapon of war,” Borrell noted, adding that Gaza has become a “graveyard for tens of thousands of people, and also a graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.”
Borrell was expressing increasingly widespread frustration in some European quarters regarding Israeli conduct of the war in Gaza, but his comments do not represent the position of all EU member states nor the European Commission, where Borrell is also a vice president.
European splits over the war have been evident for some time. On Dec. 12, 2023, in a vote calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, 17 countries were in favor, eight – including Germany and Italy — abstained and two – Austria and the Czech Republic – opposed. More than three months later, disunity only appears to have widened. The EU Foreign Affairs Council – made up of the foreign ministers of member states – has not called for an immediate ceasefire despite the mounting death toll. The most urgent language so far came on Feb. 19, 2024, with a call for “an immediate humanitarian pause that could lead to a sustainable ceasefire.” Even this statement was not unanimous, as it was opposed by Hungary.
More evidence of division surfaced after Israeli reports that 12 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. The EU – which, through the European Commission, is the third largest contributor to UNRWA – immediately announced that it would review its funding of the UN agency, which provides key assistance to Palestinians. The commission in early March said it would go forward with funding, but at least 12 countries are withholding money until a full investigation is concluded. Among them are Germany, the second largest donor to UNRWA in 2022 after the U.S., the Netherlands, and Italy, which belong to the top 15 contributors to the agency.
Disagreement is also evident among the highest EU officials. While Borrell has openly criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza for months, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, has been much more sympathetic to Israel. In a visit to Israel on Oct. 13, 2023, that apparently was not coordinated with Borrell, von der Leyen expressed European solidarity with Israel after the Oct. 7 massacre. She did not couple these comments with a call for restraint in Israel’s military response even though some 1,400 Gazans had already been killed by then. By now, more than 30,000 Gazans have died under Israeli attack, the majority women and children.
Since her visit to Israel, von der Leyen has sought a more nuanced position but has continued to center her discourse around Israel’s right to defend itself, with only limited mention of the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza. Only on March 17, during a visit to Egypt, did she call for “an agreement on a ceasefire.”
The divergences between Borrell and von der Leyen can also be observed in their approach to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Borrell has repeatedly remarked that Israel needs to allow more trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza. Von der Leyen has focused her recent diplomatic efforts on establishing a maritime corridor to deliver aid, a more time-consuming and less efficient method.
The abysmal situation in the enclave is primarily the result of Israel’s decision to dramatically limit the number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza with humanitarian aid. Prior to Oct. 7, 500 trucks entered Gaza daily. The average in February was below 100. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has put in place procedures to inspect and clear trucks at only two crossings into Gaza. The process is unpredictable and opaque. As a result, very little food and other vital items make it into the territory. When they do, distribution is chaotic, especially in northern Gaza, due to the destruction of infrastructure, the desperation of the population, and Israeli attacks on aid convoys as well as the absence of Palestinian police and other officials, many of them killed or captured by Israel as linked to Hamas.
The EU could theoretically use as leverage a review of its trade agreement with Israel – which includes a human rights clause. Spain and Ireland – the first European country to call for an immediate cease-fire — have asked the EU to study this possibility, but at least six member states opposed the idea as of March 18. Another option would be stopping or conditioning arms exports to Israel. This would be in line with Borrell’s calls for the U.S. to sell fewer weapons to Israel if it considers the civilian death toll in Gaza too high.
Such a decision would be up to EU members, especially  Germany, which provided 30% of Israel’s weapons imports during the last five years, second only to the U.S. Berlin is highly unlikely to take such a step as Israel’s security is considered Germany’s Staatsräson (national interest, or, literally, reason of state) in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. In fact, Germany increased weapons exports to Israel tenfold in 2023, with a huge rise after Oct. 7.
Unable or unwilling to pressure Israel to stop its offensive, the EU has focused instead on alternative means of providing humanitarian aid with an announcement by von der Leyen on March 8 about establishing a maritime corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip. Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands – the largest EU donors suspending payments to UNRWA – are among those expressing support for the corridor.
The Israeli government has welcomed the maritime corridor initiative. The Spanish ship Open Arms, after departing from Cyprus, arrived in Gaza on March 15 with 200 tons of food. The operation was coordinated by the American NGO World Central Kitchen, whose personnel on the ground built a small pier out of rubble. In his recent State of the Union Speech, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a larger plan to build a temporary pier, but that is expected to take many weeks to activate. Von der Leyen remarked that the EU effort “can make a real difference to the plight of the Palestinian people.” However, the amount of food carried by Open Arms could be transported overland by 10 trucks, a fraction of what used to enter Gaza every day before Oct. 7.
Von der Leyen also said the EU would consider airdrops, but humanitarian agencies have consistently expressed the view that land routes are far more effective. The European focus on airdrops and sea deliveries risks shifting attention away from the leverage the EU has over Israel but declines to wield.
Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza by sea will also be inspected by the same Israeli authority, COGAT, that has obstructed deliveries by land. Humanitarian aid, without being accompanied by a durable cease-fire, can only achieve modest results. With limited influence compared to the US, the EU has further reduced its leverage over Israel because of its disunity.
Marc Martorell Junyent holds an MA in Comparative and Middle East Politics and Society from Tübingen University. He is a writer and researcher whose work has appeared in The New Arab, Jacobin, Responsible Statecraft, Democracy in Exile, and other publications.
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