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Former European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Friday accused EU leaders of being complicit in Israel’s alleged crimes in Gaza by failing to impose sanctions, urging immediate action to uphold international law and human rights, Anadolu reports.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, Borrell said Israel’s attacks on Gaza amount to genocide, citing the widespread killing and starvation of civilians as well as the destruction of infrastructure. He also pointed to daily violations of international law by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“But for all those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, there can be little doubt that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and starving civilians after systematically destroying all the infrastructure in the territory,” he wrote.

Borrell argued that the EU’s continued inaction despite its legal obligations under the EU-Israel Association Agreement renders it complicit in the crisis.

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“The EU has many levers it could pull to exert significant influence on the Israeli government,” he said, noting that the bloc is Israel’s largest trading partner and participates in several joint funding and exchange programs, including the Horizon and Erasmus programs.

He underlined that Article 2 of the agreement makes cooperation conditional on respect for human rights, meaning that EU leaders have a legal obligation to suspend the deal, warning: “Failure to do so would also be a serious violation of the association agreement with Israel.”

Borrell, who served as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy until 2024, said he had pushed for stronger measures during his tenure but received little support from member states.

“This inaction has already seriously damaged its geopolitical standing, not only in the Muslim world but across the globe,” he said.

“The leaders of the EU and its member states will probably be called to account in the future for their complicity in the crimes against humanity committed by Netanyahu’s government,” he wrote.

“The EU must finally decide to sanction Israel without further delay,” he concluded.

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.