Leaked EU report reveals extent of Israel’s crimes… and the hypocrisy of Europe

On 20 June, an official document was circulated to EU embassies in Brussels. This ‘note on Israel’s compliance with Article Two of the EU-Israel Association Agreement’ is a damning summary of the genocidal war currently being conducted in Gaza. The significance of this document is that it is now the official opinion of the EU’s own legal body that Israel is committing the gravest war crimes. And yet, the EU, in violation of its own legal requirements, continues to back Israel to the hilt.

While we have no faith in the legal machinations of the EU to put a stop to Israel’s barbarous crimes, this leaked document provides a shocking overview of the horrors being committed in Gaza.

It is an indictment of the criminal leaders of the EU that it has taken a year and a half to investigate whether Israel is, in fact, committing gross violations of the ‘international humanitarian law’ for which the bloc claims to be an upright standard bearer. Instead, the EU leaders have been consistent in their support for Israel, and have obfuscated the reality of the genocide unfolding in Gaza.

Article Two of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is the modest request that any diplomatic or economic relations between the two parties should be “based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”. It is hard to see how Israel has not continually been in breach of this clause since the Agreement was signed in 1995, yet it took two years of genocidal war for EU bureaucrats to take note of this. Only on the back of continuous escalation of the genocide and the enormous anger it has generated in the region and domestically, have the EU taken the mildest measure of ‘investigating’ the facts.

The EU has in its possession massive leverage which it could exercise to rein in the Netanyahu regime. The EU represents Israel’s largest market and one third of all of Israel’s trade, worth £68 billion, which is based on the legal framework of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Given that Israel is now clearly in violation of Article Two of that agreement, the letter of the law would dictate that this agreement should be scrapped. In fact, this investigation was a paper exercise. The European Council would have to vote unanimously to alter the implementation of its agreement with Israel, which will not happen.

The contents of the leaked document will come as no surprise to anyone. It highlights Israel’s “indiscriminate attacks” against civilian areas, hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza. It notes the mass displacement of civilians, the death of women and children, the overwhelming lack of Israeli accountability, and many more of the horrors that can be seen every day on social media or in the news.

The document describes the “deliberate attempt” by Israel to “limit the flow of information to and from Gaza”, combined with the killing of journalists “in large numbers”, in order to restrict international coverage of the savagery of the war.

In the West Bank, the document describes violence against Palestinians by the Israeli state and by settlers as “humiliation and inhuman and degrading treatment in some cases amounting to torture”. It quotes from a number of reports from international bodies comparing Israel’s policy in the West Bank to “racial segregation”, “apartheid” and “colonisation”.

Such language speaks for itself. In total, the document finds six distinct types of human rights abuses that Israel is carrying out in Gaza, alongside a further three in the West Bank.

Pathetic conclusions

In just eight pages, the extent of the Israeli state’s barbarism in Gaza and the West Bank is put on full display. Yet even when presented with irrefutable evidence, the document is couched in all the mealy-mouthed language of diplomacy, and refuses to call this by its real name: genocide.

The atrocities being committed in Gaza and the West Bank have long been evident to countless workers and youth / Image: Ashraf Amra, Wikimedia Commons

Having described in intimate detail Israel’s use of “starvation… torture… [and] apartheid”, amongst other evident crimes against humanity, the report concludes that there are mere “indications” that Israel “would be” in breach of Article Two of the Association Agreement.

Most absurdly, the report claims to “not include any value judgement” by those who wrote it. The Office of the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, we are told, is neutral on questions of starvation, torture and indiscriminate killing.

The barefaced contradiction between the severity of the report’s findings and the mildness of its conclusions is plain to see. Claudio Francavilla from Human Rights Watch rightly attacked the “pathetic phrasing of the conclusions… [which] reflect political discomfort and cowardice in certain powerful corners of the EU”.

The atrocities being committed in Gaza and the West Bank have long been evident to countless workers and youth, who have boldly expressed their sympathy and support for the Palestinian people.

The mealy-mouthed mandarins in Brussels, however, have no greater fear than embarrassing the European ruling class with these ‘revelations’ of Israel’s barbaric human rights abuses. After two years of unrelenting support for the genocide, the best the EU can produce is the paltry suggestion that something might need to change. Given the conflicting opinions within the EU regarding Israel, however, this is no surprise.

Divisions in the EU

Responding to the leaked report, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, whose office was responsible for the document, stated that it was “very clear” that Israel was in breach of its commitments to human rights, adding: “The concrete question is what then [the EU] are able to agree?”

This is indeed a fundamental question! And the answer, it seems, is: not a lot.

The hand-wringing conclusions of this report are undoubtedly a direct product of the need to balance between the conflicting positions and interests of EU leaders regarding Israel. Any attempt to agree on a response will inevitably be bound up with the same contradictions.

The proposal to review Israel’s compliance with Article Two of the Association Agreement was put forward in October 2024 by 17 EU members, including Spain and Ireland, but faced heavy opposition from governments such as Germany, Austria and Finland.

Spain’s Pedro Sanchez has so far seemingly taken the hardest line in favour of the “immediate” suspension of the Association Agreement. In a speech at a recent EU summit, Sanchez rightly called out the bloc’s “double standards” in eagerly applying 18 packages of sanctions against Russia at the start of the war in Ukraine, and yet being incapable of even suspending their Association Agreement with Israel.

Spain’s Pedro Sanchez has so far seemingly taken the hardest line in favour of the “immediate” suspension of the Association Agreement / Image: European Parliament, Flickr

This fighting talk is pure smoke and mirrors, however, since it would require complete EU unanimity to carry this out – something which even Prime Minister Sanchez must know is not going to happen.

On top of this Pedro Sanchez’ words ring particularly hollow, considering that during his first four years in office, Spain was among the EU’s top five weapons suppliers to Israel.

The firmest opposition to any change in the status quo came from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was quick to categorically rule out any review of EU-Israel relations whatsoever, describing any change to the Association Agreement as “out of the question”.

Even Kallas, despite being responsible for the report and describing Israel’s crimes as “very clear”, hastily stated that any response should be “not intended to punish Israel”. To state that factually proven crimes against humanity do not warrant punishment is a degree of rotten hypocrisy that only the EU is capable of achieving.

Compromise or class struggle

Scrambling for a compromise to maintain a shred of credibility, some EU diplomats are now suggesting they are “open to” the suspension of some trade or research agreements with Israel, down to paltry ‘sanctions’ against individual Israeli ministers and West Bank settlers.

Whether it would be possible to scrape together the necessary 55 percent majority in the European Parliament even for the mildest, most tokenistic of these sanctions is doubtful, but it is without doubt that such a debate would raise the hackles of a number of member states, who are staunchly behind Israel.

Whatever the outcome of this report, it is clear that tensions regarding Israel are on the rise within the EU. A recent poll revealed that public support for Israel in western Europe is now at its lowest level ever recorded, and some governments will inevitably feign concern for Palestine as pressure from the masses in their own countries intensifies. Yet, while there is enormous anger brewing over this genocide among the public, at the top of the EU we are told there is “no momentum” for action against Israel.

As communists, we have no faith in the legal manoeuvres of European imperialism to put a stop to the horrors taking place in the Middle East, even if they truly wanted to. It remains the task of the working class in Europe and internationally to bring down their warmongering governments that show contemptuous indifference for the suffering of the Palestinian people, whilst continuing to support Israel’s right to conduct its genocidal war.