The refusal of the EU and UK to challenge Israel makes a mockery of our commitment to democracy and human rights

At a special meeting of the UN’s Human Rights Council last week, Pakistan and Syria put forward a resolution focusing in particular on the Israeli siege of Gaza and the resulting humanitarian and environmental crisis. It called for international action and asked Israel to lift the siege imposed on Gaza, reopen the border crossings and immediately restore supplies of fuel, food and medicine.

In an act of shameful cowardice, the European Union and the UK abstained from voting on the resolution, despite the fact that the EU itself recognises that escalating violence in Gaza poses an increased humanitarian threat. Commissioner Ferrero Waldner has herself described recent events using the term ‘collective punishment’ to refer to the treatment of the Palestinian people. And yet the EU saw fit to effectively vote against the UN resolution last week.

In a statement explaining its position, the EU claimed that the resolution did not ‘call on all parties to the conflict to take a constructive stand towards peace’. Yet the text proposed by the Pakistani and Syrian representatives very clearly urged  ‘all parties to respect the rules of human rights law and international humanitarian law and to refrain from violence against the civilian population’.

The UK’s similar weakness in abstaining from the vote is deplorable. In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, I have asked why the onus appears to be on occupied Palestine to do more than Israel, the occupying power, to end this conflict. Why is calling on both sides to respect human rights and international humanitarian law unacceptable? The Government must do more to hold both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to account for acts of violence, whilst also calling for an end to the siege of Gaza.

According to the European Commission, the UK had serious reservations about both the wording of the resolution, as well as the Human Rights Council even convening to discuss the immediate crisis in Gaza. The Government appears to have resisted moves by France, Finland and other EU member states to actively negotiate the text of the resolution and was instrumental in the EU’s decision to abstain.

A particularly controversial issue was Israel’s right to self-defence, with the UK pressing for this to be recognised in the resolution. Yet when the Palestinians accepted such wording, as long as their own right to resistance was similarly recognised, EU Member States refused to agree.

The blockade of Gaza has cut off the flow of fuel, blocked commercial and humanitarian supplies and profoundly undermines the region’s water sanitation system. The UN estimates that over 860,000 people can now be classed as vulnerable - yet once again, no real action is being taken to address the causes of this recent crisis.

In correspondence with the European Commission last week, I called for EU law to be enforced to bring Israel to account for its ongoing blockade and for the EU to make an impact on the crisis via its preferential trade pact with Israel. The EU’s Association Agreement with Israel is expressly dependent on both sides meeting basic human rights. Despite persistent breaches, this clause has never been invoked. Yet by suspending the Agreement and attaching the necessary conditions to any future policy, the EU could play a significant role in bringing peace and stability to the Middle East.

Such action would not only place pressure on the Israeli government, it would send a clear message about Europe’s commitment to upholding human rights and international law.