EU isn't helping the Palestinians

Despite often-repeated and now-stale statements emanating from Brussels in support of the two-state solution, the peace process, a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel, the European Union is not doing enough to create a climate for peaceful progress. Once again, after the flotilla fiasco, the EU has let another opportunity to make a real difference pass.

During a first tour of the Middle East as EU ‘foreign minister', the British Baroness Catherine Ashton affirmed in a speech in Cairo that pursuing peace is a "vital European interest". Three days later, on March 18, Ashton declared in Ramallah that Israel's "annexation of east [occupied] Jerusalem is not recognised by the international community" and urged the "Government of Israel to freeze all [colony] activity".

In Ramallah, she met with Henrik Malmquist, head of the police reform mission EU Police Co-ordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support (EUPOL COPPS), and Colonel Alain Faugeras, head of the EU's Border Assistance Mission in Rafah (EU BAM Rafah) — both EU missions were established to buttress Palestinian institutions. The problem is that European efforts to build Palestinian statehood are extremely lopsided.

Long before the election of Hamas in January 2006, Gaza had been secluded by the Israeli military. Brussels had endorsed the watershed elections as free and fair, and then reversed its approval by condemning the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza to a medieval siege. The Israeli blockade of Gaza is unique in the world since the international community is complicit in this violation of another people's sovereignty.

It is also worth remembering that since Hamas' overwhelming election, EU BAM Rafah became essentially useless and was officially suspended in June 2007 when Hamas took over Gaza. Egypt also refused to keep its side of the Rafah crossing point open, in line with US and Israeli policies. Again: EU inaction equals complicity in condemning all of Gaza.

As a result, the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access is now defunct and EU BAM Rafah consists of only 13 people (down from over 80 staff). The other mission, EUPOL COPPS, is characterised as a success story, but focuses solely on the West Bank, thus exacerbating the geographic, social, political and economic rifts between the Palestinians, which now epitomise the most severe division in the Arab/Muslim world.

As part of the international Quartet, along with the US, Russia and the UN, the EU is largely responsible for not creating a more conducive climate for Palestinian reconciliation. Each time, Brussels can excuse its inaction by saying it is part of the Quartet, and since Quartet policy largely addresses Israel's security concerns, no one in the world is supposed to talk to Hamas, even though everyone knows that there will be no reconciliation, no negotiations and no peace without involving the political-military group in charge of Gaza.

But Brussels prefers to wait and watch. Meanwhile, the two EU civilian missions the main tools on the ground for the nascent EU foreign policy are at the disposal of the Quartet to advance their plans for a secure Israel and a pacified Palestine. The Quartet statement in Moscow, March 2010, builds on the European Council's December 2009 Conclusions and the Fayyad Plan for ‘Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State' of Palestine by August 2011.

Flotilla fiasco

After the Israeli military attack on the flotilla, Ashton repeated that "the blockade of Gaza is unacceptable". But Israel is allowed to continue abusing international law: no other state in the world would have been allowed to kill civilians on a foreign boat in international waters the same Mediterranean Sea shared by Europe, Turkey and North Africa. Imagine if it had been Iran rather than Israel!

The EU has now called for an international investigation into Israel's impertinence. But look at the Goldstone Report: the facts about Israel's invasion of Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 are on display, but nothing has changed. Don't hold your breath for the flotilla report. And yet, there is an opportunity for Brussels to make a difference.

Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing and lifting the Israeli blockade is now seen as the only way forward. Quartet Special Representative Tony Blair is urging Israel to accept an expanded EU BAM at border crossings, including Kerem Shalom and Karni. This is a first step towards increasing the flow of goods to Gaza, via Israel.

The most innovative solution, however, would be to deploy a European naval mission to monitor the international and Palestinian waters along Gaza, just as the UN does off the coast of Lebanon. This would have avoided the flotilla fiasco. Ashton can push for such a decision with the European foreign ministers, but she'll have to wait until they convene in July.

More time will be lost and hundreds of millions of euros in European tax-payer money spent on maintaining Palestinian livelihoods and the Israeli occupation while the "constructive ambiguity" from the EU bureaucratic apparatus does next to nothing to encourage the creation of a Palestinian state. Please, no more statements from Brussels!

Stuart Reigeluth is editor of www.revolve-magazine.com. Dimitris Bouris is a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick, working on the EU role in Palestinian state-building