Support for a review of the EU’s trade deal with Israel is building as the situation in Gaza gets more and more desperate, that’s according to Ireland’s Minister for International Development.
Neale Richmond is in Brussels for a meeting of EU foreign ministers this afternoon.
At the request of the Netherlands, ministers will discuss whether the EU should review whether Israel is in breach of the human rights clause – Article 2 – of the EU-Israel trade deal, known as the Association Agreement.
Ireland and Spain raised the issue last year, but could not get other European governments to agree.
But in light of the worsening situation, the position of some EU member states has changed.
The UN warns that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza within the next 48 hours without urgent support.
“It’s really important from the Irish government to absolutely underline the obligations to European Union member states to the people of Gaza”, said Neale Richmond this morning.
We need “to make sure that we see a proper humanitarian corridor opened up and that, yes, we do look at Article 2 and look at the human rights obligations of Israel towards the people of Gaza and indeed the West Bank.”
“There is going to be a very hard discussion on Gaza and what is happening there”, said the EU’s foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas. “The Dutch Minister has put forward a proposal to do the review of article two of our association agreement with Israel, and we will discuss this.”
“Momentum is growing”, said Neale Richmond.
“If we look at over a year ago when the Irish and Spanish, Taoiseach and Prime Minister put down a request to open up Article 2, that was just two countries, and now we’ve up to ten countries [supportive].”