BRUSSELS, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has sharply criticized the European Union (EU), saying its policies and those of its member states are contributing to the destruction of Palestine.
Addressing reporters at the European parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, she accused the EU of failing to uphold its international legal responsibilities towards Gaza and the Palestinian situation in general.
Albanese pinpointed the continued trade and military cooperation between the EU and Israel as a central issue, expressing grave concern that the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement has been blocked by nations including Germany and Italy.
Albanese highlighted ongoing arms transfers and Israel’s participation in programs like Horizon Europe as evidence that the EU is not a passive observer but an active participant in the crisis. “In my view, the situation is so dire that it is beyond comment.”
The UN expert described the situation in the occupied West Bank as an “ethnic cleansing” marked by violence of nearly unprecedented scale in the past eight decades.
She highlighted a troubling European involvement, noting that many violent Israeli settlers hold citizenship in European countries and that numerous Europeans have served in the Israeli military. Against this backdrop, she argued, discussions of a two-state solution are meaningless while the Palestinian population is “disappearing and their land is being seized or destroyed.”
“We are facing a new genocide, and we are at risk of being complicit in it,” she warned.
She elaborated that this European complicity not only leads to the devastation of Palestine but also undermines the core principles on which the European Union was founded.
She also dismissed the US President’s plan for Gaza as non-compliant with international law, citing the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the illegality of Israel’s occupation, and reiterated the urgent need to suspend the EU-Israel military cooperation agreement.
