Europe: A bystander to realpolitik, or a broker of principled peace?

EU foreign affairs ministers will meet on Monday for the Foreign Affairs Council where the “situation in the Middle East” is on the table. 

The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner.  

Oxfam has worked in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel since the 1950s. 

As it stands, Oxfam alone has more than $2.5 million worth of life-saving aid, including high-calorie food packages, which are now sitting in warehouses outside Gaza and ready to distribute. Oxfam and its partners have the expertise to restore water and sanitation infrastructure to get people safe water, expand cash and food assistance, and help people rebuild shattered communities. 

Aid is not moving at the pace and volume needed. Many international organisations remain blocked under Israel’s restrictive “approved organisations” approach. This is not aligned with the ceasefire’s humanitarian commitments and goes against international law. Oxfam and partners are scaling up our response on the ground despite the blockages, but there is much more we could do and need to do. In Gaza today, we are delivering cash assistance, clean water, vital WASH equipment and infrastructure repairs, protection, and mental health support. We can expand our response more rapidly at greater scale if Israel lifts its barriers to allow us access. Donor governments including mediator states have a critical role in ensuring that independent, principled humanitarian organizations can operate freely. Funding and enabling these actors is the most effective and lawful way to stabilize Gaza without militarizing the response. 

Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement states “Relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.” Israel’s well-documented violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, violate Article 2.    

Oxfam is calling for a permanent ceasefire, safe and unhindered humanitarian aid, an end to illegal Israeli occupation and a halt in all arm sales and transfers to Israel while there is a risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.     

Oxfam has been calling for a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement – for example, ahead of the EU’s meeting with Israeli counterparts in February. The EEAS report, as leaked, states that there are “indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights abuses”, referring to both the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. 

Oxfam’s reaction to the ceasefire agreement.