A dramatic split in the European Union has emerged over plans to ban trade between the EU and illegal Israeli settlements.
The split has erupted over a policy paper drawn up by the European Commission which was presented to a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers on Monday.
This paper outlined ideas on how trade from illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories could be curtailed.
Palestinian territories occupied and annexed by the Zionist regime are held to be illegal by the EU but member states are still permitted to import goods from Israeli settlements that have taken over Palestinian land.
Pressure on the EU to impose sanctions has increased in recent months due to escalating violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, and the Israeli government’s continued expansion of settlements.
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kalias, said before Monday’s meeting: ‘Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable.’
In fact not everyone agrees, as was made clear at the meeting when representatives from Germany and Italy blocked the plans by insisting that any trade embargo would require the unanimous backing of the 27 EU member states.
The German foreign minister told reporters that a unanimous vote was required, adding: ‘We must now focus on ensuring that these discussions with the Israeli government remain productive’ a view supported by Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani who suggested it was a ‘political rather than a commercial choice’ requiring unanimity under the EU’s foreign policy rules.
Opposition to the open support for trading with illegal Zionist settlements came from France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden who argued that sanctions were an economic matter and did not require a unanimous vote.
In fact, the Belgium foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, struck a more correct estimation of the Commission’s paper describing it as ‘more like a bone to chew on’ than a serious attempt to deal with a crisis that has provoked the mass opposition of workers and youth throughout Europe.
The Commission’s own estimates on the effectiveness of any of the measures it proposes suggest it would hit only 0.5% of the trade between Israel and the EU.
The EU is the largest trade partner with Israel, far bigger than the US.
Trade in goods between the bloc and Israel amounted to $45.3 billion in 2024 according to EU data.
Figures released by Al Jazeera this month showed that public institutions in EU member states signed 194 contracts worth nearly $3.1 billion with Israeli companies – a figure likely to be an underestimation.
The number of contracts actually increased following the launch of the genocidal war in Gaza.
While US imperialism provides all the weapons and financial support to the Zionist state, it is the EU which provides all the trade that enables it to continue its illegal, under all international law, attempts to drive Palestinians from their land through mass murder and terror.
In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that all states should neither assist nor facilitate Israel’s continued unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, a ruling that is binding on all EU member states.
In refusing to accept even the token proposals advanced by the Commission, the leaders of Germany and Italy have shown their contempt for international law and their unashamed complicity with Zionist genocide.
Without this support the Israeli regime would collapse.
The time has come for the working class and youth across Europe to take action by demanding their trade unions organise general strikes to bring down these genocide-supporting governments and go forward to workers governments.
Workers governments will end all financial and trade ties with the Israeli state and provide all the material support required for the victory of the Palestinian revolution and the establishment of the independent state of Palestine.