Why the EU won't divorce Israel

Josep Borrell has advocated stronger EU-Israel relations for most of the past five years. (Lukasz Kobus / European Union)

Josep Borrell is turning into Mister Angry now that his term as European Union’s foreign policy chief is almost over. In one recent comment, he argued that it is “high time” to end the “illegal occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza.

Borrell has nothing to lose by being blunt and accurate.

The situation in Gaza and in the Occupied Territories is deteriorating by the hour, w/ unbearable sufferings for civilians. No one seems to be able or willing to stop this.

Violent settlers spread destruction, hospitals are besieged, @UNRWA's activities more & more at risk. 1/4
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 4, 2024

There is zero prospect of a swift reconciliation between him and the Israeli government, which has baselessly smeared Borrell as an anti-Semite. And if anyone complains about how he calls the occupation “illegal,” Borrell can point to a ruling issued by the International Court of Justice in July.

Yet it will take more than a few strident comments to compensate for how Borrell advocated stronger relations with Israel during most of his five-year term.

He enjoyed some success in that respect. In 2022, the EU-Israel Association Council – a high-level forum of dialogue – was revived after it had been mothballed for a decade.

Nor should Borrell’s anger disguise how the Brussels bureaucracy has kept on doing business with Israel as it slaughters people in Gaza and Lebanon.

Last month the EU announced that it was giving a “mission label” to Eilat, a city in Israel. The “label” – which is supposed to help local authorities gain greater access to funding – rewards plans aimed at achieving “climate neutrality.”

Praising an Israeli authority for “climate neutrality” is a warped joke considering that the war against Gaza has been an environmental disaster. By one estimate, the quantity of carbon released during its first 120 days exceeded what 26 low polluting countries would emit in an entire year.

Crass incongruity

Another example of crass incongruity can be found in how the EU recently approved a scientific research grant for a pancreatitis project run by Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The grant was signed on 21 October – just a few days after Israel attacked two of the three hospitals still functioning (albeit barely) in northern Gaza.

Why is the EU prepared to support Israeli medical projects at the very same time Israel is annihilating Palestine’s medical system?

A clue can be found in an internal EU briefing document I obtained via a freedom of information request. Dating from December 2021, it argues that Israel’s participation in Horizon Europe, the EU’s science program, is valuable.

“For the EU, we benefit from Israel’s excellence, top-notch innovation capacity in our key priority areas (green, digital, public health), as well as a substantial financial contribution,” it says.

The financial contribution was “very important” at the time “in view of the uncertainty” around whether Britain would be involved with Horizon Europe, the paper (see below) adds.

These few sentences are revealing. Countries taking part in Horizon Europe from outside the EU pay to do so.

After Britain left the European Union in 2020, it was no longer involved with EU research activities for a few years.

Britain eventually joined Horizon Europe in January 2024. During its absence, some Brussels insiders evidently saw Israel as akin to a replacement for Britain – at least when it came to the research program, a major focus of EU expenditure.

Josep Borrell is the second Spaniard to hold the post of the EU’s foreign policy chief.

When his compatriot Javier Solana was nearing the end of his term in that job, he called Israel “a member of the European Union without being a member of the institution.”

Solana singled out scientific research cooperation with Israel as being “very important” at that time – October 2009.

EU insiders have continued making the same argument since then.

For quite a few people in Brussels, the relationship with Israel is regarded as a type of marriage. No matter what barbarity Israel resorts to, the EU hierarchy will not dare contemplate divorce.