Latest news with #JosepBorrell
The National
28-05-2025
- General
- The National
Palestine's envoys gain status as Europe is more critical of Israel
At his goodbye party in November, the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, made a diplomatic gesture that received little attention at the time but meant a lot to Palestinians. It is a symbolic gesture, but a strong political message of support European diplomatic source Mr Borrell received copies of the mission letters of the new Palestinian ambassador, Amal Jadou, in a symbolic gesture of support to the Palestinian diplomatic profile at the heart of Europe. That was a change in protocol and in keeping with Mr Borrell's public frustration over the EU's passive position over the Israel-Gaza war. Palestinian ambassadors did not usually hand over their letters to such high-ranking EU officials. Palestine is recognised as a fully-fledged state by a minority of the EU's 27 countries. But it paved the way six months later for Ms Jadou to become the first Palestinian ambassador in Brussels to present her credentials to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. The event, which included 10 other ambassadors from countries ranging from Egypt to Colombia, took place on May 20 − the same day that the bloc announced it would launch a review of its relations with Israel. Backed by 17 countries out of 27, it was an important move triggered by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 'We see the shift,' an Arab diplomatic source told The National. 'It's too late. It's too little. But we are happy something is happening.' "This is a major change in EU dynamics on the Gaza crisis," said Martin Konecny, director of the European Middle East Project think tank in Brussels. "Even countries with right-wing governments that have backed Israel so far are now becoming ready to put EU pressure on their ally." Diplomatic boost Letters of credence are a diplomatic tradition that signal the start of formal relations between an envoy and the leadership of the country they work in. It 'highlights the importance of international dialogue and the EU's commitment to fostering co-operation with countries around the world,' according to the European Council. The Palestinian mission described its participation in the ceremony as representing 'an advanced step in consolidating diplomatic relations between the State of Palestine and the European Union'. Palestinian ambassadors normally hand over their letters of credence to the chief of protocol of the European External Action Service, the equivalent of the EU's foreign affairs ministry, unlike normal states. They give them to the EU's presidents − Mr Costa and Ms von der Leyen. But Palestinians were requesting an upgrade, which they view as reciprocity. The EU ambassador to Palestine always gives his letters of credence to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This year, the change in protocol in Brussels was backed by Mr Costa. This mirrors practices by a number of EU countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium to upgrade their diplomatic relations with Palestinian officials. 'The current political context and the EU's commitment to the two state solution were clearly on Mr Costa's mind. It is a symbolic gesture, but a strong political message of support toward the recognition of the State of Palestine', an EU diplomatic source said. This upgrade in diplomatic relations with Palestinians comes on a backdrop of increased diplomatic isolation of Israel, 19 months into the Gaza war. Israel's ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, on Thursday warned of a 'diplomatic erosion'. 'Europe is seeing horrific images and struggling to deal with them. The support we had at the beginning of the war is no longer there,' Mr Regev said, quoted by The Times of Israel. The most recent high-level diplomatic meeting between the EU and Israel took place in February, after a three-year suspension, in a move that 'highlighted a positive light on Israel-EU relations,' an Israeli diplomatic source told The National. 'Challenging times' 'We are examining the current developments following the last foreign affairs council,' they said, in a reference to Tuesday's meeting of 27 foreign affairs ministers during which a review of relations was announced by Mr Borrell's successor, Kaja Kallas. 'We believe that despite the current challenges, the dialogue between Israel and the EU will continue to be constructive and reflective of the deep relations and shared values between both parties,' added the Israeli diplomat. The launch of the review may lead to a proposal to suspend in part or in full the EU-Israel association agreement, which could heavily impact trade relations between the two parties. However, such a proposal, before it is submitted to a vote to the 27 EU countries, must be greenlit by Ms von der Leyen. Widely viewed as Brussels' most powerful official, Ms von der Leyen, a former German minister, is known to be against a review. In another important diplomatic move in Brussels that may impact its work on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the EU on May 20 also announced the appointment of former French ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot as special envoy for Middle East Peace Process, replacing Dutch lawyer Sven Koopmans. The EU's long-standing policy is to support the establishment of a Palestinian state, but recognition is off the table for a number of states, including Germany and Italy. Mr Bigot, who will take up his duties on June 2, recently served as director of the Africa and Indian Ocean department at the French Foreign Affairs Ministry and director of strategy for France's external intelligence agency, the DGSE. In the 1990s, his first posting abroad was in Beirut, and he later worked as adviser to socialist foreign affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner. 'France supported his nomination as we always do when French diplomats are nominated in multilateral institutions,' French diplomatic sources said. Mr Bigot is scheduled to travel to Israel and Palestine in late June as part of his job focusing on a two-state solution, at a time when France is readying to co-host with Saudi Arabia a major conference in New York. France's intention to recognise Palestinian statehood has been heavily criticised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Relations between Europe and Israel further soured this week in the wake of the murder of two Israeli embassy officials in Washington, which Israeli leaders have blamed on the support by some Europeans for Palestinian statehood.
New Indian Express
26-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Collapse of global morals in Gaza
Gaza today resembles a wasteland. Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened. Hospitals, schools, water treatment facilities, and food networks lie in ruins. The survivors—an estimated 2.1 million—face an abyss of misery, hunger and disease. Nearly half a million people, including the vast majority of children, are facing catastrophic hunger, and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity. According to the UN, an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. Meanwhile, the healthcare system is hanging by a thread—with hospitals facing mass casualty incidents amid severe shortages of supplies, equipment, blood and staff. The fuel that powers healthcare and water facilities is also being rationed and is running out. Aid, when it arrives, is sporadic, politicised, and often contingent on Israeli strategic objectives. Convoys are delayed, rerouted, or entirely denied access. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to target infrastructure and civilian shelters, including hospitals like Al-Ahli, where dozens were killed in a single strike. The international justice system appears to be failing. Although the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over war crimes and crimes against humanity, their enforcement remains elusive. The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to end the occupation, setting a September 17 deadline, but without an enforcement mechanism, the mandate is likely to remain a pipedream. UN experts describe Israeli tactics as mirroring 'documented patterns of genocidal conduct', citing the mass displacement of civilians, destruction of basic infrastructure, and the weaponisation of food and medicine. The UN genocide convention defines the crime as acts committed with 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group'. It includes killing and inflicting life-threatening conditions. Former EU foreign policy chief and a former president of the European parliament, Josep Borrell, has gone further, calling Israel's actions 'the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the Second World War'. He condemned Europe's tepid response and called it an active enabler. The horrors Israel had suffered in the Hamas attacks in October 2023 could not justify the horrors it has subsequently inflicted on Gaza, he added. The new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, has also added his voice to the suffering of the Gaza residents. 'I am deeply hurt by what is happening in the Gaza Strip. May a ceasefire immediately come into effect.,' he said at his first Sunday address at the Vatican.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says EU's former top diplomat
The former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and 'carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination'. Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU's top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc's failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough. As he collected the Charles V European award in front of dignitaries including King Felipe in south-west Spain on Friday, Borrell said the horrors Israel had suffered in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 could not justify the horrors it had subsequently inflicted on Gaza. 'We're facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tonnes of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,' he said in a characteristically direct speech. The former diplomat accused Israel of violating all the rules of conflict and of using the starvation of Gaza's civilian population as a 'weapon of war'. 'Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,' he said. 'And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services. That's what [Benjamin] Netanyau's ministers have said and it's what they've done.' He added: 'We all know what's going on there, and we've all heard the objectives stated by Netanyau's ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent. Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide.' Borrell went on to take Europe to task for shirking its moral and humanitarian responsibilities over Gaza. 'Europe has the capacity and the means not only to protest against what is going on but also to influence [Israel's] conduct,' he said. 'But it is not doing so. We supply half the bombs that are falling on Gaza. If we really believe that too many people are dying, then the natural response would be to supply fewer weapons and to use the lever of the association agreement to demand that international humanitarian law is respected, instead of just lamenting that that isn't happening.' The veteran socialist politician also used his speech to reflect on current geopolitical realities, which he described as unprecedented. The post-1945 world order, he said, was being demolished by Vladimir Putin, 'a tyrant whose military failure in Ukraine has made him more dangerous', and by Donald Trump who he described as 'the master of chaos, who has gone from being an ally to an adversary'. The question facing Europe, he added, was how well it would cope without the protections long afforded by its old ally across the Atlantic. 'In order to deal with this situation, we need to move from structural pacifism to strong rearmament, but we need to do that on a European scale if we want to avoid the waste that stirs the old national demons,' said Borrell. 'We need to shift away from a comfortable and atavistic Atlanticism, which has seen us delegate our security to the US, to building full European sovereignty, which will also mean giving Europe a fiscal and security dimension.' Related: How Trump's walkaway diplomacy enabled Israel's worst impulses He said that Europe was no longer the great driver, or chronicler, of world history. 'Today, history has become a product that's imported,' Borrell added. 'History has been written by the Russian soldiers who marched towards Kyiv in the early hours of a February morning, and by the Ukrainians who resisted. History is being written by the US voters who put Mr Trump back in the White House.' History, he went on, was now the story of the technological competition between the US and China. In what appeared to be a swipe at Trump, Borrell added: 'The faces of history today are those of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. None of them is European. I know them – well, I know them a bit – and I can assure you that of those three, two are more intelligent than the third. The thing is the third one doesn't know it.'
The Guardian
11-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Israel and Gaza: Trump can stop this horror. The alternative is unthinkable
Donald Trump would like a big foreign policy win as he embarks on his tour of the Middle East this week. He could secure one – and save lives – by demanding that Israel agree to a lasting ceasefire in exchange for the release of all hostages held in Gaza. He might prefer to avoid the issue, but no other leader has the leverage to force its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end this war. If Mr Trump instead backs Israel's current proposals, he will put the US imprimatur on what looks like a plan of total destruction. Israel's attacks have already killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities – the vast majority of them civilians, many of them children. Bakeries, hospitals and schools have been obliterated. Aid has been blocked for two months. Gaza faces famine. Last week, Israeli officials briefed that if no deal to free the hostages seized in the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 is reached, its forces would flatten Gaza, forcing Palestinians to crush into a single 'humanitarian area' or flee abroad. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, said that Gaza would be 'entirely destroyed', and 'totally despairing' Palestinians would realise 'there is no hope'. He has said that freeing hostages is 'not the most important thing'. 'Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide,' said Josep Borrell, the former EU foreign affairs chief. The international court of justice ruled in January last year that there was a 'plausible risk' of genocide. Amnesty International, a UN special committee and leading scholars, including within Israel, have concluded that genocide is taking place. Many inside Israel, including people critical of the government, are outraged at the charge. The UN genocide convention defines the crime as acts committed with 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group'. It includes killing and inflicting life-threatening conditions. Openly envisioning the total destruction of Gaza, pursuing the removal of its population as a goal rather than a battlefield consequence, and destroying the means by which life is sustained, looks not merely like brutality but a deliberate project of elimination. Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept refugees, saying that they would otherwise be complicit in war crimes. The legal bar for proving genocide is exceptionally high. Washington has declared genocides four times in the last decade – in Iraq and Syria, Myanmar, Xinjiang in China and Sudan – without waiting for judges. International law moves slowly, and signatories to the convention, including the US and UK, are required not only to punish but to prevent genocide. The court of public opinion is reaching its own conclusion. Supporters of Israel often argue that it is held to an unfair standard. But Israel has international protection not only because of the history of the Holocaust, but also as a democracy and a western ally. Its actions are enabled by vast US military aid and political cover. Now it plans a Gaza without Palestinians. What is this, if not genocidal? When will the US and its allies act to stop the horror, if not now? Mr Trump's indifference to Palestinian lives and interest in relocating them to turn Gaza into the 'Riviera of the Middle East' have emboldened the Israeli government's worst instincts. But he could still use the power only he holds to stop the annihilation. This is his chance to make history in the Middle East for the right reasons.
Asharq Al-Awsat
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Borrell: Israel Committing ‘Genocide' in Gaza
The former EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and 'carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination.' According to The Guardian newspaper, Borrell also criticized the bloc's failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough. As he collected the Charles V European award in front of dignitaries including King Felipe in south-west Spain on Friday, the former EU chief said the horrors Israel had suffered in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 could not justify the horrors it had subsequently inflicted on Gaza. 'We're facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tons of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,' he said in a characteristically direct speech. Last February, US President Donald Trump suggested that nearly two million Palestinians should be relocated from battle-leveled Gaza to new homes elsewhere so that the US could send troops to the Strip, take ownership and build the 'Riviera of the Middle East.' 'You build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some place where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that they're going to end up dying,' Trump told reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. Borrell accused Israel of violating all the rules of conflict and of using the starvation of Gaza's civilian population as a 'weapon of war.' 'Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,' he said. 'And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services. That's what Netanyahu's ministers have said and it's what they've done.' He added: 'We all know what's going on there, and we've all heard the objectives stated by Netanyahu's ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent. Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide.'
