<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-washes-its-hands-gaza">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-washes-its-hands-gaza</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">EU washes its hands of Gaza</h1>
<div id="meta-data" class="meta-data">
<div id="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr" style="text-align:
left;">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog"></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-06-22T16:29:54+00:00">22 June 2017</span></span>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4" dir="ltr"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="sumud-region-main">
<article class="node-20866 node node-blog view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
<figure id="file-48426" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-jpeg"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><figcaption
class="group-caption field-group-html-element"></figcaption></figure>
<p>After 10 years of Israeli blockade, conditions for
two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip are
by all accounts worse than ever.</p>
<p>Israel’s blockade, <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20170613_gaza_electricity">according</a>
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.”</p>
<p>Yet the European Union, which markets itself as a
champion of freedom, democracy and human rights, has
washed its hands of the people there.</p>
<p>After four successive days of reductions, Israel has
now cut the electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip
<a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777763">by
60 percent</a>.</p>
<p>This comes on top of chronic shortages that meant
most households only had about four hours of
electricity a day.</p>
<p>As numerous international bodies have <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply">warned</a>,
the territory is in the midst of an unfolding
humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>In mid-May, the International Committee of the Red
Cross <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-brink-systemic-collapse-icrc-warns">said</a>
that Gaza was on the brink of “systemic collapse” as
operating rooms, water and sanitation systems cease
functioning.</p>
<p>Already, Gaza City’s main hospital has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/surgeries-cut-one-third-gazas-main-hospital/20601">slashed
surgeries by one-third</a>, and as a result of the
blockade, exacerbated by the electricity crisis, the
territory is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/life-septic-tank/20826">swimming
in sewage</a>.</p>
<h2>Palestinian Authority’s cruelty</h2>
<p>Israel hides behind the Palestinian Authority, which
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/power-crisis-hits-gaza-hospitals-israel-tightens-siege-sick">asked
Israel to reduce the electricity supply</a>, as part
of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ effort to undermine Hamas,
which rules the interior of Gaza.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777763">few
days</a> supply of fuel from Egypt – despite <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4979565,00.html">PA
efforts</a> to stop Egypt providing this brief
reprieve.</p>
<p>The PA’s cruel campaign against the people of Gaza
also includes <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777644">cutting
off medicine supplies to the territory</a>. 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.</p>
<h2>EU enablers</h2>
<p>But as numerous human rights groups have pointed out,
Israel cannot escape its responsibility.</p>
<p>Israel <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply">remains
the occupying power</a> in Gaza. It alone has the
power to immediately end the suffering and it has a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-blames-palestinians-electricity-crisis-israel-caused-gaza">legal
obligation</a> to do so under the Fourth Geneva
Convention.</p>
<p>Israel however acts with impunity because it is
supported and enabled by world powers, especially the
European Union, its biggest trading partner.</p>
<p>For days, The Electronic Intifada has been asking the
<a
href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en">European
Union External Action Service</a> – 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.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU
foreign policy chief <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/federica-mogherini">Federica
Mogherini</a>, confirmed that she had received The
Electronic Intifada’s inquiry and promised “to see
what the latest is” and “come back to you ASAP.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Silence is consent</h2>
<p>The EU grants Israel all kinds of trade concessions
and funding under their so-called Association
Agreement.</p>
<p>That <a
href="http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2010/april/tradoc_146089.pdf">agreement</a>
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.</p>
<p>Dozens of European Parliament members have urged
Mogherini to suspend the agreement – in light of
Israel’s repeated and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-deas/dozens-european-parliamentarians-call-end-eu-israel-treaty">flagrant
violations</a> of Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>But instead, the EU seems only set on further
rewarding Israel.</p>
<p>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 – <a
href="https://twitter.com/EUinIsrael/status/861616596019793924">including</a>
“research” programs that <a
href="http://www.eccpalestine.org/eu-funding-to-israeli-military-companies-and-institutions-through-horizon2020/">fund</a>
Israel’s military industry.</p>
<p>Even this week as conditions in Gaza deteriorated,
the EU has been touting its military cooperation with
Israel over so called “shared challenges.”</p>
<div id="file-48411" class="file file-document
file-text-oembed oembed-rich oembed-default
oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">General <a
href="https://twitter.com/Kostarakos">@Kostarakos</a>
chairman of the EU military commitee addressing
<a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HC17?src=hash">#HC17</a>
on our shared security challenges <a
href="https://t.co/LbIInEAKO3">pic.twitter.com/LbIInEAKO3</a></p>
— EU in Israel (@EUinIsrael) <a
href="https://twitter.com/EUinIsrael/status/877204260940906497">June
20, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>Meanwhile, the EU External Action Service has not
tweeted anything at all about Gaza <a
href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=from%3A%40eu_eeas%20gaza&src=typd">since
2015</a>.</p>
<p>The latest crisis in Gaza has been unfolding since
April and has prompted <a
href="https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777351">warnings</a>
that it could lead to another war.</p>
<p>The EU’s silence cannot therefore be an oversight.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n12/sara-roy/if-israel-were-smart">exhausted
and traumatized</a> by a decade of isolation and
successive Israeli military assaults.</p>
<p>The European Union is indeed deepening its vaunted
partnership with Israel. It is a partnership in crime.</p>
<br>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>