460 European figures urge EU to take tougher stance on Israel

More than 460 former European leaders and senior officials are urging the EU to harden its stance on Israel, warning that the bloc is failing to respond forcefully enough to the intensifying military campaign in Gaza and the West Bank.

The signatories include a broad cross-section of political heavyweights — former prime ministers, European Commissioners, government ministers, ambassadors, MEPs and senior EU officials. Among them are former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox.

Also backing the appeal are former prime ministers Massimo d’Alema and Romano Prodi of Italy, Robert Golob of Slovenia and Stefan Löfven of Sweden.

The intervention comes ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg next week and an EU summit in Brussels, where leaders are expected to examine proposals to scale back trade with Israel and suspend parts of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

“It must now act urgently to implement recommendations such as those repeatedly made since July 2025 in a series of public statements by a group of now over 460 European former ministers, ambassadors and senior officials”.

The article goes on to argue that “the EU must suspend Israel’s preferential trade access under the EU-Israel Association Agreement”, a step it says would affect one third of Israel’s total trade in goods with the world.

It says such a move would depend on leadership from the European Commission and the European External Action Service, which, following previous practice, should put forward the measures for approval by a qualified majority vote of EU member states.

EU’s credibility ‘being undermined’

Beyond trade, the group is calling for a ban on all imports from illegal settlements in the West Bank and for the sanctions list to be widened to include additional Israeli ministers, officials, individuals and entities linked to settlements, with visa bans and asset freezes imposed.

The editorial also urges foreign ministers to suspend Israel’s participation in EU research programmes where Israeli public and private entities “are in breach of international law”, and to stop trade in military and dual use goods.

“Alarmingly, today, the EU’s credibility in the eyes of its own citizens and voters – and most of the world – is being undermined by its failure to show moral and political leadership in upholding international law,” the op-ed says.

The signatories accuse Israel of “acting with total impunity in pursuing forced displacement [in the West Bank] to make way for illegal settlements in addition to other discriminatory policies against Palestinians”.

They point to the International Court of Justice, saying it “has already determined that there is a real risk of irreparable damage to Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention whilst arrest warrants have been issued against Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The piece adds: “Despite this the Israeli government continues to impede the provision of necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, including by UNRWA and international NGOs, while simultaneously obliterating Palestinians’ means of producing food and water by laying to waste their farmland and destroying reservoirs and desalination plants.

“Having forced Palestinians to live in squalid and inhumane conditions, the Israeli government now plans to further crush the entire population of Gaza into just 30% of their already severely overcrowded territory, further pressuring beleaguered Palestinian residents to permanently abandon their homeland.”

The editorial further charges that Israel has brushed aside the July 2024 ICJ opinion, which found that all Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories — “now harbouring at least 750,000 persons” — are illegal and must be dismantled.

“The Israeli government… instead continues to actively promote the further annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, inter alia by nurturing and supporting increased violence by extremists engaged in stealing more land and evicting Palestinians from their homes,” it says.

“To make matters worse the Israeli government is preparing further land seizures in the E1 district and in Area C with the aim of bisecting the West Bank in two and undermining the two-state solution which is supported by the EU and the overwhelming majority of UN members.”