With war raging in Gaza and tensions rising across the West Bank, a large coalition of veteran European political leaders is urging the European Union to stop “standing aside” and take sharper measures against Israel.
In an editorial signed by more than 460 former prime ministers, European Commissioners, government ministers, ambassadors, MEPs and senior EU officials, the authors press Brussels to respond to what they describe as Israel’s escalating military action in Gaza and the West Bank. Irish signatories include former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox.
The list also features former prime ministers Massimo d’Alema and Romano Prodi of Italy, Robert Golob of Slovenia and Stefan Löfven of Sweden.
The intervention comes ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg next week, followed by an EU summit in Brussels. Both gatherings are expected to weigh proposals for the EU to curtail trade with Israel and to suspend elements of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
The editorial said: “The European Union cannot stand aside.
“It must now act urgently to implement recommendations such as those repeatedly made since July 2025 in a series of public statements by a group of now over 460 European former ministers, ambassadors and senior officials”.
It added: “Specifically, the EU must suspend Israel’s preferential trade access under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, thereby impacting one third of Israel’s total trade in goods with the world.
“This requires leadership from the European Commission and the European External Action Service who, in line with past practice, should propose that these measures be enacted through a qualified majority vote by EU member states.”
EU’s credibility ‘being undermined’
Beyond trade preferences, the group calls for a ban on all imports from illegal settlements in the West Bank. It also urges the EU to broaden its sanctions by extending the list of Israeli ministers, officials, individuals and entities linked to settlements, including visa bans and asset freezes.
The editorial also calls on foreign ministers to suspend Israel’s participation in EU research programmes – where Israeli public and private entities “are in breach of international law and halt trade in military and dual use goods”.
The op-ed said: “Alarmingly, today, the EU’s credibility in the eyes of its own citizens and voters – and most of the world – is being undermined by its failure to show moral and political leadership in upholding international law.”
The signatories accuse Israel of “acting with total impunity in pursuing forced displacement [in the West Bank] to make way for illegal settlements in addition to other discriminatory policies against Palestinians”.
They argue that the International Court of Justice “has already determined that there is a real risk of irreparable damage to Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention whilst arrest warrants have been issued against Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
It added: “Despite this the Israeli government continues to impede the provision of necessary humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, including by UNRWA and international NGOs, while simultaneously obliterating Palestinians’ means of producing food and water by laying to waste their farmland and destroying reservoirs and desalination plants.
“Having forced Palestinians to live in squalid and inhumane conditions, the Israeli government now plans to further crush the entire population of Gaza into just 30% of their already severely overcrowded territory, further pressuring beleaguered Palestinian residents to permanently abandon their homeland.”
The editorial further contends that Israel has brushed aside the July 2024 ICJ opinion which found that all Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories “now harbouring at least 750,000 persons, are illegal and must be dismantled”.
It said: “The Israeli government… instead continues to actively promote the further annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, inter alia by nurturing and supporting increased violence by extremists engaged in stealing more land and evicting Palestinians from their homes.
“To make matters worse the Israeli government is preparing further land seizures in the E1 district and in Area C with the aim of bisecting the West Bank in two and undermining the two-state solution which is supported by the EU and the overwhelming majority of UN members.”
