Lobby Watch 16 July 2025
Ursula von der Leyen, a staunch ally of Israel. (Christophe Licoppe / European Union)
The German aristocracy is accustomed to being on the wrong side of history. Most nobles backed Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Bavarian aristocrat Katharina von Schnurbein is on the wrong side in the 2020s. Rather than sticking to her actual job as the European Union’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism, she is defending the holocaust which Israel is inflicting on Gaza.
As the website EUobserver has revealed, von Schnurbein has dismissed the voluminous evidence that Israel routinely massacres Palestinians as “rumors about Jews.”
Like her chums in the Israeli government, she smears everyone who makes even small gestures of solidarity with Palestinians. A bake sale which her fellow Brussels officials held to raise funds for a Red Cross Gaza appeal was an example of “ambient anti-Semitism,” in von Schnurbein’s mind.
Von Schnurbein may not be a household name, yet she is far from being a marginal figure in Brussels.
Although her job contract does not give her any mandate to deal with foreign policy issues, she has been actively trying to thwart the imposition of sanctions on Israel. No doubt, she was pleased that the EU’s governments failed to reach a consensus when the option of sanctioning Israel was raised this week.
She appears to enjoy the backing of her compatriot Ursula von der Leyen – who also comes from an aristocratic background. As von der Leyen began her second term as European Commission president in December last year, she decided that von Schnurbein would work under her direction.
In a little-noticed move, von der Leyen dictated that von Schnurbein would no longer be part of the European Commission’s justice department, where she had previously been based. Instead, she would be part of the European Commission’s secretariat, which von der Leyen oversees.
Von der Leyen, lest it be forgotten, is a staunch ally of Israel, who had even assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could “count on” the EU’s support after the Gaza genocide began in October 2023. By “poaching” von Schnurbein from another department, von der Leyen was quietly underscoring that the agenda of weaponizing anti-Semitism is something to which she is fully committed.
Magnus Brunner, Austria’s member of the European Commission, has also been handed responsibility for fighting anti-Semitism by von der Leyen.
Brunner is still in the early stages of his five-year stint in Brussels. Yet he has already reached peak absurdity.
A few weeks ago, posters were spotted in Brussels featuring photographs of pro-Israel advocates. The posters stated the truth: that the individuals shown in them were lobbying for genocide.
Having plain facts visible on the city’s streets was unacceptable for Brunner. He invited the lobbyists – many of whom could be seen in the posters – to his office, so that he could express “solidarity” with them.
In a social media post, Brunner alleged that the pro-Israel groups – which he misleadingly described as “European Jewish umbrella organizations” – were victims of a “deeply concerning and anti-Semitic campaign.” Brunner has not produced any evidence to suggest the people in the posters were targeted for their religion or ethnicity rather than the political stances they had taken.
Brunner epitomizes the perversity that prevails in Brussels. When he is not offering solidarity to apologists for genocide, he is reflecting on how Europe can become even less welcoming towards refugees than it currently is.Making cruelty look reasonable
The tasks which von der Leyen has assigned to him include increasing and speeding up deportations. To help reach that objective, he has been entrusted with strengthening Frontex, the EU’s border guard agency.
Through a freedom of information request, I recently obtained some documents which shed light on Frontex’s activities. They make clear that Frontex regards deportations – or “returns,” to use its preferred euphemism – as “the core element” of its work.
Frontex sees itself as a kind of travel agency, which books or helps to arrange deportations for EU governments. Frequently, these are undertaken on regular passenger flights.
The documents show that Frontex acknowledges that a “return hubs” proposal pushed by von der Leyen is “controversial” but that the agency views it favorably.
The proposal is more than controversial. If implemented, it would lead to serious human rights abuses.
It would involve deporting people to camps in whichever countries agree to set them up. Judicial scrutiny of the expulsions would be prevented, according to one paper being discussed by EU governments.
The documents I have obtained show that the management of Frontex has been chatting to Brunner about “return-related novelties.”
The “novelties” are either not spelled out or they have been censored by Frontex. Based on the agency’s current activities, I shudder to think of what they could entail.
In January this year, two members of the Frontex staff took part in a deportation on a plane chartered by the German police. Those deportees deemed uncooperative were restrained using body-cuffs, an internal Frontex report says.
A separate internal report from late January shows that Frontex had been alerted to how someone deported from Norway faced persecution if sent back to their home country. The deportation still went ahead.
A “fundamental rights officer” at Frontex provided assurances about the “correctness” of the actions taken during the deportation.
Frontex also found there was an “impossibility” to “enter into the merit” of the deportation. Doing so, it suggested, would stray beyond the agency’s mandate.
While Frontex has redacted the name of the country to which the person was sent, it describes the deportation as “very relevant” from an “operational perspective.” It was the first deportation to the country in question since 2019.
The choice of words here is instructive. Kicking out refugees is a high priority for the European Union; everything else is accorded a lower importance.
Magnus Brunner and Ursula von der Leyen are both right-wing politicians. Despite how they package their proposals as “firm and fair,” there can be no mistake that they want to make Europe more cruel toward refugees.
It is only logical that politicians who present a sadistic deportation policy as reasonable are accommodating towards genocide.
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