A million signatures in Europe ignite a threat to the trade agreement with Israel

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The petition, defined as a “European Citizen Initiative” (ECI), was published by a number of left-wing parties in the European Parliament in January of this year, and calls for the suspension of the Association Agreement due to the Israeli actions in Gaza. The organizers want to reach 1.5 million signatures to ensure at least one million “kosher” signatures, which will be verified by the appropriate mechanisms. At the end of the verification process, the petition will require a discussion on the issue in the European Parliament and the Commission. The rationale for the move is “an unprecedented scale of killing and injuring civilians, significant and widespread displacement of the population and systematic destruction of hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza.” The petition claims that Israel is “violating international law”.

What will be Hungary’s position?

Last fall, the tension with the European Union intensified, and the President of the European Commission even announced a partial suspension of relations due to Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza. A total suspension of the association agreement was not possible due to the opposition of countries such as Hungary, Italy, Germany and Austria within the European Union. Germany and Italy stood out in particular, forming a “blocking bloc” that prevented measures against Israelis who demanded a privileged majority of two-thirds of the population in the Union. After the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the issue fell off the agenda.

However, now, due to the Israeli attacks in Iran and Lebanon, among other things, a series of countries critical of Israel are once again demanding to discuss the issue. Spain, Slovenia, Ireland and other countries have stated that they intend to raise the demand at the upcoming meeting of the Union’s foreign ministers, this Tuesday in Luxembourg. The Prime Minister of Spain, who made dealing with foreign issues such as Iran and Gaza a central part of his policy in an attempt to recover politically, returned last week to say that “Israel repeatedly violates international law” and publicly called for the suspension of the association agreement with it.

One of the open questions is what will be Hungary’s position after the country’s government changes next month. Under the rule of Viktor Orbán, Hungary did not hesitate to torpedo initiatives that it defined as anti-Israel. Another question is whether Italy will change its position on the issue, after the political message that Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney sent to Israel when she announced last week that she would not renew the security cooperation agreement that has existed for two decades.

Among countries that have so far been considered friendly to Israel, such as Germany, the issues of harming Palestinians in the territories beyond the Green Line, settler violence, the government’s construction policy and the death penalty legislation for terrorists are at the top of the agenda. Israel’s disregard for the European position may lead to a focus on sanctions on settlers that will be expanded at the level of the European Union (and not only at the level of individual countries) and perhaps also a push from Brussels to boycott settlement products. At the public level, Israel’s image in Europe is at a multi-year low, as the mobilization to sign the petition demanding to sever ties between the Union and Israel proves.