HRVP Blog - The death of Yahya Sinwar should mark a turning point at a
moment when a new cycle of violence is engulfing the entire Middle East. Europe
has a responsibility - and interest - in helping make ceasefires in Gaza and
Lebanon and the release of hostages possible. We must also help Palestinians
and Israelis move from mutual rejection to mutual recognition and assist the
Lebanese in rebuilding their state.
© European Union, 2024
The
anniversary of the 7 October terrorist attack on Israel took place amid an
ongoing escalation on several fronts. A new cycle of violence, hatred, and
revenge has increasingly engulfed the entire Middle East, bringing the region
is to the brink of an all-out war.
In this
dangerous context, the death of Yahya Sinwar should mark a turning point. He
was an EU-listed terrorist, responsible for the heinous attack of 7 October,
and one of the obstacles to the urgently needed ceasefire and the unconditional
release of all hostages.
There must
now be an end to the wars in Gaza, the West bank and in Lebanon, The hostages
must be freed and the suffering of the Palestinian people must end. As I
outlined to the Members of the European Parliament, the EU needs to work on
five dimensions:
1. Israel has a right and duty to protect its
citizens
As former
Defence Minister Gantz recently wrote, Israel’s trauma extends beyond the
events of 7 October 2023. It covers not only the 1,200 dead and 250 hostages,
of whom around 100 are still held captive, but also the immediate Hezbollah
attack on northern Israel, forcing 70,000 Israelis to leave their homes.
Additionally there were also Iran’s attacks – first on 13 April and then on 1
October, forcing millions of Israelis into bomb shelters. We have immediately,
and repeatedly condemned these attacks in the strongest possible terms and
recognised Israel’s right and duty to defend and protect its citizens against
terrorist attacks. Israel cannot look to its future without ensuring that 7
October will never be repeated.
2. Every right has its limits
However,
like any right, the inherent right to defend oneself against attacks has its
limits. We cannot ignore the fact that 7 October was also the beginning of
other tragedies and horrors. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in
the course of Israel’s military retaliation; almost 100,000 Palestinians have
been injured, 60 % of the buildings in the enclave destroyed.
Kamala
Harris recently stated that “no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2
weeks”. Almost the entire population of Gaza is displaced and malnourished,
humanitarian access has reached a new low, famine and disease are spreading.
Almost everything that makes a society function has been reduced to rubble.
There is a right to self-defence, but there is no right to revenge.
We are now
increasingly seeing Israel replicating this conduct of war in the West Bank and
Lebanon. In the West Bank, which is under illegal occupation and where illegal
settlers have been spreading terror among local communities with total
impunity, we are now witnessing Israeli airstrikes and the destruction of
civilian infrastructure.
The bombing
of the Tulkarem refugee camp, killing 18 people, was the deadliest in the
occupied West Bank in two decades. The disproportionate manner in which Israel
has been operating in Gaza does not bode well for the protection of civilians
in the West Bank and Lebanon. It has to stop.
3. Delivering humanitarian assistance
The
European Union has been providing over € 330 million humanitarian assistance to
Gaza in 2023 and 2024. We have sent more than 60 flights in our humanitarian
airlift and have activated our Civil Protection Unit more than ten times since
7 October. Together with the Member States, we are the largest donors of
humanitarian aid to Gaza.
However,
this humanitarian aid must be distributed on the ground. UNRWA is the only UN
agency able to provide essential services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza
at the required scale. Across the region, it delivers food, shelter, and
healthcare to a majority of Gaza’s population and over 650,000 children attend
its schools.
The draft
bill on banning UNRWA, currently discussed in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament,
is very alarming. If passed, it may bring down the humanitarian response in
Gaza and would have disastrous consequences for the civilian population of the
enclave and of the West Bank.
Banning the
very organisation that ensures that Palestine refugees receive quality
education and healthcare will only worsen an already tense situation, with
negative consequences not only for Palestinians, but also for Israel and
eventually Europe.
4. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs a
political solution
What we
need most urgently now is a ceasefire and the return of a political process, in
Gaza as well as in Lebanon. No military action alone can bring a safe future to
the people of the region. No military action can be legitimate in the absence
of any attempt at finding a political solution to the conflict that caused it.
Only a political settlement will bring security and peace.
However,
never before has there been so little prospect for a political solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We all know the parameters for resolving this
conflict. The international community has backed it many times, overwhelmingly:
it is the establishment of a state for each of the two peoples. One state
already exists, a strong state with immense military and economic capacity. The
other does not.
Unfortunately,
this solution – the only one we know that could bring peace – does not have the
support of one of the most critical parties to the conflict: the current
Israeli government.
Yet, this
should not stop us from preparing a better future. This is why, in September,
on the sidelines of the last UN General Assembly, I launched together with
Prince Faisal from Saudi Arabia and Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide from
Norway a Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. A
total of 90 UN Member States and intergovernmental organisations and almost 60
foreign ministers from around the world attended.
This Global
Alliance will serve as an umbrella, under which each participant will
contribute to incentivise the implementation of the two-state solution. This
ranges from the 'unprecedented package of political, economic and security
support' that the EU promised already eleven years ago, to support for
Palestinian state-building, contributions to regional security, or a concrete
plan for regional cooperation. We will organise in coming weeks a series of
working meetings, starting in Riyadh and Brussels.
We also
need to foster dialogue between the civil societies of Israel, Palestine, and
Europe. We have already convened three such meetings. On 27 October, we will do
so again in Barcelona, within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean.
It may seem
naïve to think that, after so much confrontation, so much pain, and so much
hatred, it might be possible to build bridges between these two peoples. But as
Yitzhak Rabin told us, “You don't make peace with friends. You make it with
your enemies”. I believe it is Europe's responsibility - and interest - to help
both peoples move from mutual rejection to mutual recognition.
5. We must avoid further regional escalation
We cannot
abandon Lebanon. It was already a deeply destabilized country. Additionally,
the Israeli ground invasion already killed 2,500 Lebanese and has displaced 20%
of the population, a total of 1,2 million people. Lebanon has been threatened
to be “turned into a second Gaza”. This new war has already created tremendous
human suffering and could at any moment spread in the whole region.
The EU has already mobilised €40 million in humanitarian aid to assist those
affected and will continue to work relentless towards a ceasefire, supporting
the mediation efforts led by France and the United States. However, without a
strong commitment to political reform from the Lebanese political class there
is no long-term solution for Lebanon. It is on them to take control of the
state and lead. This must begin with the election of a President of the
Republic, a process, which has been stalled for more than two years.
The
Lebanese army must return to southern Lebanon. The UNSC Resolution 1701
provides the legal framework for this redeployment. Through the European Peace
Facility, we are currently helping the Lebanese Army build the capacity it
needs to protect the country’s borders.
With the shelling of UNFIL units – and wounding of four soldiers - the Israel
Defence Forces have crossed a red line. All 27 EU Member States have condemned
it, nobody is asking for UNFIL to withdraw. In the future, UNIFIL should be
given a stronger mandate to ensure peace at the border.
Israel needs to withdraw from Lebanese territory. Israel has already invaded
Lebanon three times: in 1978, from 1982 to 2000, and in 2006. Each time, these
tactical victories have evolved at the end of the day in strategic defeats for
Israel.
Even within
Israel’s own security establishment, some have argued that these invasions not
only failed to make Israel safer, they destabilised Israel’s northern border
and strengthened Hezbollah. What would make anybody believe that another
military occupation will yield largely different results?
History has shown that there are no military solutions to the deeply rooted
conflicts in the Middle East – not in Gaza, not in the West Bank, not in
Lebanon. Peace is the only long-term security guarantee.
Israel’s
peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt have demonstrated this for decades. They
should serve as blueprints, including with a Palestinian state. It is time to
give peace a chance.
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