War in Gaza: The day Europeans decided to reconsider their association agreement with Israel

In mid-February 2024, four months after the attacks committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, and his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, requested in a letter to the European Commission to undertake an "urgent review to determine whether Israel is respecting its obligations, including under the EU-Israel Association Agreement."

In light of the multiple violations of humanitarian law by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, documented by NGOs, and the approximately 28,000 Palestinian victims that were then recorded, the two leaders questioned the respect of the commitments of this text which, since 1995, has governed both the political relationship between the two partners and the liberalization of trade. The Commission then ignored the missive.

More than a year later, on Tuesday, May 20, in Brussels, with the Gaza Strip under a humanitarian blockade for eleven weeks, and the human toll now exceeding 52,000 victims, mostly civilians, Kaja Kallas, the head of European diplomacy, announced the Commission's review of Israel's compliance with their association agreement in light of the "catastrophic" situation in the Palestinian territory, now reduced to ruins and partly reoccupied. This time, the EU executive will not be able to back down.

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