site.btaEuropean Commission Will Propose Package of Measures Against Israel, Says Ursula von der Leyen

The European Commission (EC) will propose a package of measures against Israel to stop the war in Gaza, the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union annual address to the European Parliament on Wednesday.

“We cannot afford to be paralyzed. That is why I will propose a package of measures to carve out a way forward,” von der Leyen said. “First, the Commission will do all that it can on its own. We will put our bilateral support to Israel on hold. We will stop all payments in these areas - without affecting our work with Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem"

BTA notes that Yad Vashem is the Israeli centre in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

She added that EC would propose to the EU Council the introduction of sanctions against extremist ministers in the Israeli government and against settlers engaging in violence in the West Bank. EC’s second proposal is to partially suspend the trade Association Agreement with Israel, acknowledging that it will be difficult to form a majority as some would be against that action, she said. “Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war.”

She also condemned the increasing aggression against Palestinians through financial suffocation of the Palestinian Authority and the newest Israeli settlement plans for the West Bank because they “points to a clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution”. She underscored that the EU’s commitment to a viable Palestinian authority keeps the two-state solution alive. 

Von der Leyen noted that next month a Palestine Donor Group would be established, along with a dedicated instrument for Gaza reconstruction. The European goal is “real security for Israel and a safe present and future for all Palestinians,” she concluded.