Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot told AFP Friday that the EU’s credibility on foreign policy was “collapsing” due to the bloc’s failure to act over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“It is undeniable, we are not going to bury our heads in the sand, that the European Union at this stage is not living up to its responsibilities in this enormous humanitarian crisis,” Prevot said in an interview at his office in Brussels.
Belgium has said it will recognize the State of Palestine at this month’s UN General Assembly, while unilaterally imposing new sanctions against Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
That move comes as the EU has so far failed to take action against Israel over its war against Hamas in Gaza due to deep divisions among its 27 member states.
“It is clear that, in the eyes of the public, the credibility of the European Union’s foreign policy on this particular issue is collapsing,” Prevot said.
The EU’s executive in July proposed cutting funding to Israeli start-ups over the war, but so far the move has not received the backing of a majority of countries.
Prevot said Belgium’s decision on recognizing the State of Palestine and sanctioning some far-right Israeli ministers was meant to send a “strong political and diplomatic signal” to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The recognition will take legal effect via royal decree, subject to two conditions: the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and the terror group’s full exclusion from Palestinian governance.
Prevot said the aim was to “put pressure on the Israeli government to respond as quickly as possible to the humanitarian emergency” in Gaza.
“There is a moral obligation, and there is also a legal imperative to act; countries are parties to international conventions and treaties that oblige them to take all necessary measures to prevent genocide from occurring,” said Belgium’s top diplomat. “We must be proactive defenders of international law.”
Israel has denied all accusations of genocide.
In July, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN meeting, due to be held from September 9 to 23 in New York.
More than a dozen other Western countries have since called on others to do the same.
Israel says that recognition of a Palestinian state is a reward for terror in the wake of Hamas’s devastating October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the ongoing war.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.