Analysis: Several smaller countries are taking a stand about Israel's conduct in Gaza
Away from the warzones of the Middle East, Israel finds itself fighting other battles.
Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague rejected Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
They are both wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out under their watch in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7, 2023, strike on southern Israel. In a bid to pressure the international court, the United States has placed sanctions on some ICC judges and prosecutors.
Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar went to Brussels for meetings with European counterparts.
He emerged, in his words, victorious, having achieved 'an important diplomatic feat' of persuading the European Union to avoid adopting punitive measures against Israel.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said the bloc was keeping 'options on the table' but would not pursue mooted sanctions that it was considering after an earlier EU assessment found Israel possibly in breach of human rights commitments.
But rights advocates were frustrated, given the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and Israel's documented stifling of aid into the flattened territory.
The EU's acquiescence, suggested Amnesty International's Agnès Callamard, would be 'remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU's history' and was 'a cruel and unlawful betrayal of the European project and vision'.
The governments of Ireland, Spain, and Slovenia are the three European nations that have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel and spearheaded the attempted reckoning in Brussels.
They are pressing ahead with their own measures to show their disapproval of Israel's conduct of the war, which has severely depleted Hamas but also destroyed Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many children.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez earlier this month accused Israel of carrying out a 'genocide'.
Irish lawmakers are advancing legislation banning trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, much to the anger of some US officials.
And Slovenia declared two far-right Israeli Cabinet ministers as personae non gratae, banning them from the country.
'This kind of measure is the first of its kind in the EU,' Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said. 'We are breaking new ground.'
There's reason to be cynical about the efficacy of such attempts by small countries.
In Europe, the governments of Britain, France, and Germany remain far more reluctant to confront Israel in similar fashion, while French President Emmanuel Macron's efforts to revive international momentum toward the creation of a Palestinian state seem to be fizzling out.
Israel's boosters in the US can shrug and smirk.
'An unstated reason for Europe's particular animus toward Israel over the decades is that the continent's leaders secretly resent Israel's willingness and ability to regularly defend itself through tough military action,' mused veteran Washington wonk Robert D. Kaplan, 'something Europe's elites never had even to countenance, and arguably couldn't manage.'
Kaplan and his ilk were unlikely to be impressed by a summit that took place last week in Bogotá, where delegations from 30 countries convened to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, as well as its occupation of the West Bank.
The session of The Hague Group was co-hosted by South Africa, which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and the left-wing government of Colombia.
It concluded last Thursday with 12 countries agreeing to implement a set of measures to 'restrain' Israel.
These include a denial of arms to Israel, banning of ships transporting such arms and reviews of public contracts with companies linked to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
A scan of the list of the countries that immediately signed on may suggest Israel's leadership isn't quite shaking in its boots: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa.
But the conference's backers argued that it's a first step in a global shift.
'For too long, governments have been too afraid of the consequences of angering the US to risk taking action to uphold international law,' Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who attended the proceedings in the Colombian capital, told me.
'This is about more than Israel and Palestine, this is about a new multilateralism taking shape to replace the old system.'
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Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Two Israeli human rights groups accuse Israel of genocide
Two Israeli human rights organisations said on Monday Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the first major voices in Israeli society to level the strongest possible accusation against the state, which vehemently denies it. Rights group B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel released their reports at a press conference in Jerusalem, saying Israel was carrying out "coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip". "The report we are publishing today is one we never imagined we would have to write," said Yuli Novak, B'Tselem's executive director. "The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved, left completely stripped of their humanity and rights." Physicians for Human Rights Israel focused on damage to Gaza's healthcare system, saying: "Israel's actions have destroyed Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic". Israel has fended off accusations of genocide since the early days of the Gaza war, including a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as "outrageous". Israel has consistently said its actions are justified as self-defence, and Hamas is to blame for harm to civilians, for refusing to release hostages and surrender, and for operating in civilian areas, which the militant group denies. A spokesperson for the Israeli government called the allegation made by the rights groups on Monday "baseless". "There is no intent, (which is) key for the charge of genocide ... it simply doesn't make sense for a country to send in 1.9 million tons of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide," said spokesperson David Mencer. Israel's military also rejected the reports' findings as "baseless". It said it abides by international law and takes unprecedented measures to prevent harm to civilians while Hamas uses them as "human shields". Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel has often described that attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, as genocidal. Since then, Israel's offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins, and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million. Accusations of genocide have particular gravity in Israel because of the origins of the concept in the work of Jewish legal scholars in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust. Israeli officials have in the past said using the word against Israel was libellous and antisemitic. When Amnesty International said in December that Israel had committed genocidal acts, Israel's foreign ministry called the global rights group a "deplorable and fanatical organisation". The 1948 Genocide Convention, adopted globally after the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". PALESTINIAN PLIGHT GAINING ATTENTION At a Jerusalem cafe, Carmella, a 48-year-old teacher whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, said she was distressed over the suffering an hour's drive away, inside Gaza. "It feels difficult to me as an Israeli, as a Jew, to watch those images and feel anything but tremendous compassion and horror, to be honest. I feel horror." International attention to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza has intensified in recent weeks, with UN agencies saying the territory is running out of food. Israel, which controls all supplies in to Gaza, says it has let enough food in, and blames the UN for failing to distribute it. Israel shut off all supplies in March for nearly three months, reopening the territory in May but with restrictions it says are needed to prevent aid from ending up in the hands of fighters. Since then, its forces have shot dead hundreds of Gazans trying to reach food distribution sites, according to the United Nations. Israel has announced measures in recent days to increase aid supplies, including pausing fighting in some locations, allowing airlifts of food and safer corridors for aid. Throughout the conflict, Israeli media have tended to focus mainly on the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Footage widely broadcast in other countries of destruction and casualties in Gaza is rarely shown on Israeli TV. That has been changing, with recent images of starving children having a little more impact, said Oren Persico from The Seventh Eye, a group that tracks trends in Israeli media. "It's very slowly evolving," he said. "You see cracks." But he did not expect the genocide allegation would spark a major shift in attitudes: "The Israeli perception is: 'what do you want from us? It's Hamas' fault, if it would only put down its weapons and (release) the hostages this could all be over'." In an editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Dani Dayan, the chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said it was not accurate to accuse Israel of committing genocide. "But that does not mean we should not acknowledge the suffering of civilians in Gaza. There are many men, women, and children with no connection to terrorism who are experiencing devastation, displacement, and loss," he wrote. "Their anguish is real, and our moral tradition obligates us not to turn away from it."
NZ Herald
5 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Balancing economic interests and security concerns, European officials said they got the best deal possible
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'We should not forget where we came from,' von der Leyen said. 'Fifteen per cent is certainly a challenge for some, but we should not forget it keeps us the access to the American markets.' Trump indeed had threatened far worse, including a 30% across the board tariff that upended months of painstaking negotiations. Under the new deal, the US will now impose a 15% duty on most imports from the EU. The blanket rate foisted on the EU mirrors a US deal announced this month with Japan, another Group of Seven ally, but it is higher than the 10% that Britain secured earlier this year and that EU officials had grudgingly accepted in recent talks. Since World War II, trade agreements have largely sought to reduce the cost of buying and selling goods across borders. A 2017 deal the EU struck with Canada eliminated tariffs on most goods traded between them. An agreement signed with Vietnam in 2019 aims to phase out nearly all customs duties. 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Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said: 'One thing is clear: This is a moment of relief but not of celebration'. Influence of security The talks laid bare the EU's queasiness at using its economic muscle, one of its few areas of leverage against Washington, at a time when allies have had to calibrate repeatedly to keep Trump on board as Russia wages war in Ukraine. Ultimately, after months of mixed signals and threats from Trump, EU leaders said they accepted a deal to give their industries a reprieve from the months of uncertainty that threatened to cripple business. Officials suggested they had relented out of concern that Trump was prepared to raise tariffs to a level that would effectively halt trade between Europe and the US. 'Let's pause for a moment and consider the alternative: A trade war may seem appealing to some but it comes with serious consequences,' said the EU trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, who shuttled to Washington in recent months for difficult talks with Trump officials. 'Our businesses have sent us a unanimous message: avoid escalation and work towards a solution that brings immediate tariff relief,' Sefcovic told reporters today. He said he and his team had travelled to Washington 10 times for a deal and said that the EU's calculations reached beyond trade. 'It's about security, it's about Ukraine, it's about current geopolitical volatility,' Sefcovic said. He said he couldn't go into detail on what was discussed in the room with Trump yesterday, 'but I can assure it was not just about the trade'. 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European nations were already poised to buy more US weapons under an arrangement with Trump to continue arming Ukraine, and the bloc was already seeking alternative energy sources, including liquefied natural gas from the US, as part of its push to phase out Russian energy imports. More energy purchases and European investments would come from member states and companies which Brussels does not control. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, seen as a close Trump ally in the EU, heralded the deal, while saying details still need to be worked out. 'I obviously welcome the fact that an agreement has been reached,' Meloni told reporters. Still, she added, 'we need to verify the possible exemptions, particularly for certain agricultural products. So there are a number of elements that are missing.'
1News
6 hours ago
- 1News
Temu accused by EU of failing to prevent sale of illegal products
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