The American website The Intercept said that European Union foreign ministers rejected a call to end arms sales to Israel last month, despite mounting evidence presented to them in an internal assessment of war crimes and possible genocide committed by Israel in Gaza.
The website explained – in a report written by Arthur Nesslen – that the contents of the 35-page evaluation, which was not previously known, may affect future war crimes trials of European Union politicians on charges of complicity in Israel’s attack on Gaza, according to the opinion of lawyers, experts and political leaders.
The European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Olof Skoog, wrote the assessment and sent it to the Union’s ministers before their meeting on November 18, as part of a proposal submitted by the Union’s foreign policy chief to suspend the political dialogue with Israel, which was rejected by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union member states.
Skoog’s analysis presented evidence from UN sources of war crimes committed by Israel, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Hezbollah since October 7, 2023, and pointed to her estimate that about 45,000 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza since then, more than half of them. Of women and children.
Strong language
Although the assessment did not exonerate Hamas and Hezbollah, its strong language was directed at Israeli forces. “War has rules,” the report says, “and given the high level of civilian casualties and human suffering, the allegations focus on Israeli forces not distinguishing between civilians and combatants, and failing to take feasible precautions to protect civilians and targets.” civilian casualties from the effects of attacks, in violation of the basic principles of international humanitarian law.”
Skoog notes the increased use of “insulting language” by Israeli political and military leaders, which may “contribute to establishing intent” to commit genocide, and the report says that “incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, such as what was stated in statements by Israeli officials, constitutes a violation of the law.” “dangerous to international human rights law and may amount to the international crime of incitement to genocide.”
Pleading ignorance
For his part, Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Finance Minister and Secretary General of the Democracy in Europe 2025 movement, warned of the consequences for senior officials from countries that export weapons to Israel, such as Germany, Italy and France, and said that if the International Criminal Court finds Israeli officials guilty of war crimes, Distributing the report to European Union ministers is of great importance, because Europeans will not be able to plead ignorance.
“They cannot plausibly deny that they were aware of the facts given the contents of the EU Special Representative’s report, which they had a duty to take into account,” Varoufakis added. “Now the world knows that they were aware that they had violated international law, and history will judge them harshly, and perhaps the court will.” “The International Criminal Court is the same.”
Criminal collusion
Skoog called on EU countries to “refuse to license exports for weapons if there is a clear risk that the technology or military equipment to be exported may be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
Following the evaluation, lawyer Tayyeb Ali said that some politicians in the European Union are at risk of collusion if it is proven that Israel has committed war crimes. He stressed that “lawyers across Europe are closely monitoring this matter and are likely to take the initiative to establish local and international accountability mechanisms.” He was surprised that France and Germany are considering protecting war criminals, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Agnès Bertrand Sanz, a humanitarian expert at Oxfam, said the assessment strengthens the case for European governments’ complicity in Israel’s crimes in Gaza, adding that those who continued to export weapons to Israel – in defiance of the report’s clear advice – were involved in a blatant case of criminal complicity.
