The Electronic Intifada
EU washes its hands of Gaza
Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 22 June 2017
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, left, has remained silent about
Israel's electricity cuts to Gaza. (European External Action Service)
After 10 years of Israeli blockade, conditions for two million Palestinians
trapped in the Gaza Strip are by all accounts worse than ever.
Israel's blockade, according to the human rights group B'Tselem, has
consigned Gaza's residents "to living in abject poverty under practically
inhuman conditions unparalleled in the modern world."
Yet the European Union, which markets itself as a champion of freedom,
democracy and human rights, has washed its hands of the people there.
After four successive days of reductions, Israel has now cut the electricity
it supplies to the Gaza Strip by 60 percent.
This comes on top of chronic shortages that meant most households only had
about four hours of electricity a day.
As numerous international bodies have warned, the territory is in the midst
of an unfolding humanitarian crisis.
In mid-May, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that Gaza was
on the brink of "systemic collapse" as operating rooms, water and sanitation
systems cease functioning.
Already, Gaza City's main hospital has slashed surgeries by one-third, and
as a result of the blockade, exacerbated by the electricity crisis, the
territory is swimming in sewage.
Palestinian Authority's cruelty
Israel hides behind the Palestinian Authority, which asked Israel to reduce
the electricity supply, as part of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas' effort to
undermine Hamas, which rules the interior of Gaza.
Fuel supplies for Gaza's sole power plant ran out in April, turning a severe
chronic shortage of electricity into a looming catastrophe. Authorities in
Gaza have now managed to secure a few days supply of fuel from Egypt -
despite PA efforts to stop Egypt providing this brief reprieve.
The PA's cruel campaign against the people of Gaza also includes cutting off
medicine supplies to the territory. As a result, more than 300 cystic
fibrosis patients are in mortal danger and 90 percent of cancer patients do
not receive full treatment, among other imminent threats to life and health,
according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
EU enablers
But as numerous human rights groups have pointed out, Israel cannot escape
its responsibility.
Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza. It alone has the power to
immediately end the suffering and it has a legal obligation to do so under
the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel however acts with impunity because it is supported and enabled by
world powers, especially the European Union, its biggest trading partner.
For days, The Electronic Intifada has been asking the European Union
External Action Service - effectively its foreign ministry - to comment on
the situation in Gaza and to explain what, if anything, it is doing to
pressure Israel to reverse the electricity cuts.
On Tuesday, Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief
Federica Mogherini, confirmed that she had received The Electronic
Intifada's inquiry and promised "to see what the latest is" and "come back
to you ASAP."
But another two days and a Thursday afternoon deadline have passed, and
there is total silence from the EU despite repeated follow up inquiries to
Kocijancic and her colleagues.
Silence is consent
The EU grants Israel all kinds of trade concessions and funding under their
so-called Association Agreement.
That agreement specifies that relations between the EU and Israel "shall be
based on respect for human rights and democratic principles," a stipulation
deemed "an essential element" of the agreement.
Dozens of European Parliament members have urged Mogherini to suspend the
agreement - in light of Israel's repeated and flagrant violations of
Palestinian rights.
But instead, the EU seems only set on further rewarding Israel.
A reliable indicator of this is the EU's representative office in Tel Aviv,
which produces a steady stream of tweets on its official account celebrating
the EU's "partnership" with Israel - including "research" programs that fund
Israel's military industry.
Even this week as conditions in Gaza deteriorated, the EU has been touting
its military cooperation with Israel over so called "shared challenges."
Meanwhile, the EU External Action Service has not tweeted anything at all
about Gaza since 2015.
The latest crisis in Gaza has been unfolding since April and has prompted
warnings that it could lead to another war.
The EU's silence cannot therefore be an oversight.
It should be read as a positive endorsement of Israel's tightening blockade
of Gaza and the suffering Israel is knowingly inflicting on a population
exhausted and traumatized by a decade of isolation and successive Israeli
military assaults.
The European Union is indeed deepening its vaunted partnership with Israel.
It is a partnership in crime.
