Europe has condemned the bloodshed unleashed by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel, which has led to over 900 deaths in the country since Saturday, October 7. In Brussels, Josep Borrell, head of diplomacy for the European Union (EU), reiterated on Sunday that "the EU stands in solidarity with Israel, which has the right to defend itself in line with international law, in the face of such violent and indiscriminate attacks."
While the 27 member states have displayed unwavering unity, they are far more divided over the next steps to be taken as the Israeli army now lays siege to the Gaza Strip and bombs it day and night. Even before Borrell convened an emergency council of foreign ministers on Tuesday to define a common position, Oliver Varhelyi, the EU's Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, surprised everyone on Monday by announcing the suspension of development aid for Palestine, which adds up to over €1 billion for the period 2021-2024.
"The scale of terror and brutality against #Israel and its people is a turning point," the Hungarian commissioner wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "There can be no business as usual." He then announced that "all payments [were] immediately suspended." Varhelyi is a close associate of Viktor Orban, Netanyahu's staunchest ally in Europe, and is being taken all the more seriously because he has consistently blocked aid to Palestine since 2021, wanting to make it conditional on a revision of Palestinian school textbooks, which are accused by pro-Israeli lobbies of inciting violence.
While Varhelyi was hastily announcing this measure − decided on a few minutes earlier by the Commissioners' heads of cabinet at their weekly meeting, according to an executive spokesperson − the representatives of the member states were in a working group meeting precisely on the topic of development. "This topic [of aid to the Palestinians] was not on the agenda," said a Brussels diplomat. "A number of representatives, who had seen Varhelyi's message, asked the Commission for explanations during the meeting," he added, "But in vain because his representative knew nothing about it."
In the face of mounting criticism, the Commission finally backed down and announced in a press release that there would be "an urgent review of EU aid to Palestine" in order to "ensure that no EU funding indirectly enables a terrorist organization to carry out attacks against Israel." As no payments were due, said the EU executive, "there will be no suspension of payments."
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