UNITED States President Donald Trump was reported as saying: “We can save a lot of people, I mean, some of those kids. That’s real starvation; I see it and you can’t fake that. So, we’re going to be even more involved.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied there was starvation, calling it a “bold-faced lie.”
Are Trump’s words empty or would he follow up on that by halting the supply of bombs and other weapons to Israel and compel the country to allow the supply and distribution of food by the UN to resume and stop its blockade?
The European Union (EU) and other countries are weak in responding to the genocide in Gaza. They fear the US president and his tariffs if they openly oppose Israel.
What is needed is for governments, as well as ordinary people around the world, to boycott products made by and exported from Israel; and protest and block weapons and other goods flowing into that country.
Trade between the EU and Israel is conducted based on an association agreement. In addition, relations between the two are framed in the European Neighborhood Policy, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean. These give Israel preferential treatment, or no or low import tax and restrictions. The EU could cancel these privileges if it has the moral and political strength to do so.
The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner. In 2013, the total volume of bilateral trade reached €27 billion. That year, 32 percent of Israeli exports went to the EU and 34 percent of imports came from the EU.
Other countries have large trading deals with Israel. China has a 17.7-percent share of trade worth $14.7 billion; the US, a 12-percent share worth $8.45 billion; and Germany, a 6.28-percent share worth $5.22 billion.
Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would recognize Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London would also do the same. So will Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
As many as 147 member-states out of the UN’s 193 members recognize Palestine as a state. That is a staggering 75 percent of UN member-states that recognize Palestine but one completely occupied by Israel. Palestine has been a nonmember UN state since November 2012.
This strengthens efforts for a two-state solution, which Netanyahu’s government strongly opposes. After a three-day UN conference on reviving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the said states would “reiterate our unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.” It stressed the “importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”/PN
