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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, laments the inaction of Brussels in the face of the ongoing “massacre” in Gaza and warns that its growing “discredit” will ultimately disqualify the bloc from implementing policies to defend human rights. However, the former diplomat, like the government of his home country, Spain, has only spoken out in support of Gaza and not taken any concrete actions.
“Someone would have to take legal action to make the European institutions do what they should do, and since it seems they don’t want to do it, there’s something called the courts of justice to take the case of inaction there,” Josep Borrell told the media at the August 25 opening of the Quo Vadis Europa course, which he directed at the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) in Santander, northern Spain.
Borrell, who headed EU diplomacy from 2019 to 2024, admitted that Brussels is doing “literally nothing” about the massacres perpetrated by the Israeli army and the induced famine.
“They say yes, maybe they’re going to make a proposal to establish some kind of sanction, but then they don’t do it,” he said.
The former diplomat also denounced the EU’s failure to fulfill its political and administrative obligations under the founding treaty of the bloc.
Borrell’s statements came in a context dominated by the resignation two days earlier of the Dutch ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Education, and Health, along with four other secretaries of state, due to “resistance within the Cabinet” to taking action against Israel.
Led by Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, ministers from the center-right NSC party had decided to ban the import of products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. However, the other two parties in the governing coalition, the liberal VVD and the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), believe the measure goes “too far.”
It also raises questions about why Borrell would make these statements during a summer school year and not utilize the influence and connections he supposedly has to lead a campaign to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. In fact, he should have made them during his term.
The first report by the UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, was released in March 2024, while Borrell concluded his term in November of that year. The report was titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” in which she convincingly documented that a genocide was being committed in Gaza.
In 2024, a series of European committees and associations defending Palestine submitted a report to Brussels, requesting the termination of the association agreement with Israel. The report argued that Article 2 of the agreement, which pertains to respect for human rights, was being violated. In other words, Borrell was obviously aware of the situation he is now denouncing.
On the same day Borrell spoke, Israeli forces attacked the Nasser Hospital in Gaza with a double bombing, killing at least 14 people, including four journalists and several rescue workers. Spain immediately condemned the attack, calling it a “flagrant and unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law.”
In his message of condemnation on X, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares stated that the “war in Gaza” must end and that “Spain works every day to achieve this.”
The reaction is illustrative of the way the EU and its national governments conduct themselves – issuing condemnations and more condemnations on social media, but taking no action to impose sanctions on those responsible for the famine.
Borrell’s statements serve as a kind of facelift for the Spanish government, which is also distinguished by its tendency to issue statements but not take effective measures. In fact, the Hague Group meeting to take effective measures was held in Colombia in July. Spanish representatives were present, but they did not speak out.
It is also worth noting that, unlike the Dutch Cabinet ministers, no Spanish minister has considered resigning for similar reasons. Ministers from Sánchez’s governing partner, the Sumar coalition, did not even seriously threaten to leave the government, despite the arms sales contracts with Israel remaining in effect.
Meanwhile, Borrel’s words about the need for “judicial action” are at odds with reality. Legal initiatives are already underway. For starters, South Africa filed a complaint against Israel for genocide with the International Court of Justice. Spain is not an effective party to the complaint and is not undertaking many of the actions it could be taking. In this way, Madrid evidently behaves in the same way as Borrell, just using rhetoric but not taking any actual action.
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europeans lost credibility with gaza. same for freezing russia $300bn. the world is moving on from the white man. the cost of such hypocrisy wil be felt in years and decades to come.
creation of false credibility is a time honored hasbara hall mark of political interference.
genuine question: does russia sanction israel?
no anche se gli israeliani hanno sempre fregato la russia come pure la turchia.
nope, putin is almost as much of a wailing wall hugger as chumpo. he makes statements about israhell defending itself and how there are a million russian speakers in israhell. russia has a very unhealthy relationship with israhell. iran cannot rely on russia in any way. russia supported genocidal us sanctions against iran. iranian children died as a result. russia refused to deliver s300 missiles iran had paid for – for years. russia refused to complete bushehr.
russia is a bit of a snake and cannot be trusted. it will always do sordid deals with its enemies and sell out its friends. this is why iran was and remains very wary of relying on russia in any way.
i hope the next russian leader is not like this at all
i don’t like it either, but every word is true – unfortunately.
this can be a deadly mistake, if russia do not abandone fake jews, and genocide of small peoples. russia have create those fake jews 800 years ago, and now they thanks for genocide of russians in russia, by allowing genocide of the real jews. this is not a multipolar world, its insanity. as longer this continue, as more probably it is that russia are ruled by satan. satan, and his veto against stop to genocide in “un” 😂
democracy uber alles ! but wait, this is not democracy ! its feudalism, packed for insane entitys, and insane adolf trump. free mass murder, and free genocide ! else they “nuke” you ! at least that what imported german nazis tell 😂
in the end israel and the us will be ignored by all free nations. two pariahs never to be traded with by any sane peoples or nations. the dollar as currency is no longer of any use to the world. international meetings to replace and hasten its removal are in progress daily. they will succeed.
gli hacker russi possono riprendere i fondi russi congelati da europei e che vogliono dare a ucraina e lo faranno presto.
they’re waiting until all of them are dead. brave leaders. eunuchs owned by w e f who plan to depopulate europe next – with nuclear war. deagel report was very specific it was 2025 when the population drops suddenly.
or depopulate europe by poison shots in fake pandemic, and bee killing by nazi salute technocrats, which installed 5g like a military operation under the fake pandemic. if “nuclear weapon” do not exist, they cant use them. the point is, that darwin was wrong, and that some technology in the end will wipe out humanity. tolkien told you this. ukrainans are now allowed to leave. depopulated by star wars, sorry, star link.
criminal western politicians know enough to try to also control the opposition to their crimes as with borrell on gaza and trump with the western crime of the ukraine war.
the jew-u will probably cease to exist in the near future. since 2000 its share of the world economy has declined from 30 to 15%. it is becoming irrelevant, an impoverished and irrelevant backwater, with an ossified, corrupt, repressive, dysfunctional political elite increasingly rejected and despised by its own disaffected populations. france, germany, jew-k are all on the verge of financial and political collapse. people like borrell are complete nonentities.
all the jew-u cringing political dwarves, starmer, macron, merz, leyen, went grovelling to chumpo in the white house, like naughty schoolgirls outside the headmaster’s study,
totally true and confirmed
america has been raped and pillaged soon to be discarded by the bank-ster cult. soon no nation will trade with it. the free world will isolate it . i call it the international pirate banker suicide cult .
propaganda to deniability is a politicians currency. one set of lies is easily replaced by the next . double and triple tap repetitions is also current zio owned media policy
0.germany caused the collapse of europe (ww1 1915)
1.germany caused the collapse of europe (hitler 1941-1945)
2.germany caused the collapse of europe (angela merkel 2015)
3.germany caused the collapse of europe + england ( ursula von der nazi,1 december 2019 )
4.germany will cause the collapse of all europe (2028 russia – germany-poland war -staliningrad)
trump will stop this war before its start.