A majority of the European Union’s foreign ministers backed a Dutch proposal to review the bloc’s ties with Israel over its actions in Gaza.
The European Union will review its wide-ranging trade and cooperation agreement with Israel over its widened offensive in Gaza and its failure to fully lift a two-month aid blockade.
The decision came on Tuesday after 17 of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers backed the move, tabled earlier this month by the Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp.
Greece and Cyprus are NOT among the countries who backed the review.
Greece was also not among the 22 countries that co-signed a recent joint statement against Israel for the famine it is causing in Gaza.
Greece’s refusal to take a clear position on the starving of people in Gaza triggered an outrage on social media, with many users speculating on more on “personal interests” of the conservative Mitsotakis government than geo-political ones.
In sharp tones, leaders of opposition parties, left-wing SYRIZA, socialist PASOK nad communist KKE urged the New Democracy government to take action and to “not stand indifferent before a crime,” so SYRIZA. PASOK described the government’s attitude towards the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as “offensive,” while KKE stressed that humanitarian aid should be sent “here and now” to starving Gaza.
Quit by chance, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis shamelessly claimed in an interview with the Associated Press that “Greece is an ‘honest broker’ between Israel and Palestine”
Gerapetritis said Greece supports a two-state solution, has discussed it and Gaza’s reconstruction extensively with Israel and the Palestinians, and sees itself as an “honest broker.”
“We would like to be actively involved, but to be totally honest, it’s not a matter of who mediates, it’s a matter of stopping the nightmare,” he said.
Worth noting that the Greek FM will preside at a Security Council meeting tomorrow Thursday on protecting civilians in conflict.
PS so far, the Greek conservative government used to jerk around locals with their pompous statements, now they brought this policy on international level.
EU to review trade and cooperation with Israel over Gaza offensive via euronews.com
The EU executive will now launch a review to establish whether Israel has violated its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a broad-ranging pact that defines the trading and diplomatic relations between both sides.
“It is clear from today’s discussions that there is a strong majority in favour of a review of article 2 of our Association Agreement with Israel,” the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, told reporters in Brussels.