Brussels: The European Union laid out Wednesday its toughest plan yet to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza as Palestinians fled en masse from Israeli tanks, drones and troops pushing deeper into the coastal enclave ravaged by 23 months of war.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, urged the 27 member nations to increase tariffs on some Israeli goods and impose sanctions on 10 Hamas leaders, Israeli settlers, and two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“We are proposing this measures not to punish Israel or Israel people, but to really try to pressure Israeli government to change course and to end the human suffering in Gaza,” Kallas said. “The war needs to end, the suffering must stop, and all hostages must be released.”
The sanctions would freeze any of the individuals’ European assets and ban travel within the EU.
The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, so the tariffs might have far-reaching effects on Israel’s economy, which is already rattled by the cost of a long war. Roughly 32 million euros (USD 37.5 million) in bilateral funds controlled by the European Commission would be immediately suspended. The commission also gives support to the Palestinian Authority.
Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza and says it allows in enough humanitarian aid.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowing that Israel will buck the European campaign.
“Pressure through sanctions will not work. The State of Israel is a proud sovereign nation, and we will not be bent through threats while Israel’s security is at stake,” he wrote in the letter.
The 27-nation EU has been split over the past 23 months of war in the Gaza Strip. It’s unclear whether a majority will agree to endorse the sanctions and trade measures.
The bloodshed in Gaza has prompted protests in multiple European cities, from Amsterdam to Barcelona, and fuelled criticism of Brussels’ bureaucracy over its perceived inability to meaningfully pressure Israel to halt military operations and let in more humanitarian aid.
The death count in Gaza is nearing 65,000 Palestinians since the war began Oct. 7, 2023, with a Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to health officials in the enclave.
“The proposed partial suspension is a carefully considered response to an increasingly urgent situation,” said Maroš Šefcovic, the European Commission trade representative.
If enough EU nations agree, tariffs amounting to about €230 million (USD 166 million) will be slapped on the 37 per cent of the €15.9 billion of Israeli goods imported to the EU, Šefcovic said. The EU currently levies no tariffs on that set of Israeli goods due to an Association Agreement.
A review by the EU diplomatic corps found in June that Israel had violated the human rights component of that agreement, called Article 2. European critics of Israel have called on the entire trade deal to be suspected over the war in Gaza.
But for now, the commission is proposing to revoke the zero-tariff preference for a select amount of imported Israeli goods and instead fall back on World Trade Organization tariffs, which vary from 8 per cent to 40 per cent on individual goods.
“We’re not proposing to suspend trade with Israel, we are proposing to suspend trade preferences,” said a senior European official tasked with communicating for the European Commission but not authorized to be publicly named according to commission policy.
The proposal followed the announcement last week by von der Leyen that she will seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, breaking with her strong pro-Israel stance.
Other European officials speaking on background said that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and also increasingly violent settlement activity in the West Bank spearheaded by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich had given “new momentum” to the sanctions. But they said that Israeli arms exports to the EU will remain unaffected under the proposal.
