Aodhán Ó RÍORDÁIN

MEP for the constituency of Dublin, only Irish S&D member of the European Parliament, member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis, and the Committee on Civil Liberties

Gaza is in ruins. Europe is out of excuses. As the EU finally begins to review its ties with Israel, the time for vague and toothless statements is over. What is needed now is action, sanctions and moral clarity.

My first-ever words in the European Parliament plenary in September 2024 were clear and deliberate: “Sanction Israel Now!”. I chose those words with full knowledge of their weight and urgency. A plea to give substance to the claim – and to my own hope – that this Union stands on the side of human rights and humanity. Even then, it was already too late for tens of thousands of people in Gaza. And yet, here we are – months later – with no meaningful action from the EU institutions. Gaza lies in ruin, its people starved, its hospitals destroyed and its children buried beneath the rubble. Israel’s war crimes are clear, its goal chillingly explicit: to “entirely destroy” Gaza, as Finance Minister Bezael Smotrich openly said, and erase any hope of a Palestinian state. And the European Union, a project born from the ashes of war and genocide, still dithers.

But perhaps, just perhaps, we are beginning to see the first chink of light pierce the moral fog that has surrounded Brussels on this issue.

On May 20th 2025, High Representative Kaja Kallas announced that the EU would initiate a review of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement  which makes the agreement conditional on respect for human rights and democratic principles. This is no small step. For the first time, the European Union is officially questioning whether our relationship with the Israeli government is compatible with the very values our Union claims to uphold. 

The move follows 18 months of livestreamed evidence of genocide and unprecedented public outcry. It also follows a formal request made as far back as February 2024 by the Irish and Spanish governments for the European Commission to urgently review Israel’s compliance with human rights provisions due to its blatant and brutal violations of international law in Gaza. 

And now, though a review is finally underway, delay and ambiguity continue to define the response of our institutions. There is no published timeline, no clear criteria for assessment, and no indication of when – if ever – tangible consequences will follow. Kallas has said it is now up to Israel to “unblock humanitarian aid”. As though a single act of strategic charity might wash away the past nine months of slaughter and siege.

Meanwhile, it is business as usual for the EU-Israel relationship. The Association Council continues to meet. Trade continues to flow. Israeli ministers implicated in genocidal rhetoric remain unchallenged. The very structures that facilitate cooperation remain untouched even as UN peacekeepers are endangered, international law is mocked, and starvation is used as a weapon of war.

In the face of such complicity, where is the moral leadership we once saw? The international community had the courage to confront apartheid in South Africa and the willpower to end it through a powerful sanctions regime. Yet now, when it comes to Israel – whom Ursula von der Leyen has always called Europe’s friend – the EU bites its tongue. We cannot save innocent victims if we do not call out the perpetrator. We cannot stop the bloodshed if we do not name the crimes. This is a genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government.

We cannot continue to turn a blind eye while pretending to hold the moral high ground. And the citizens of Europe know this. Across the continent, public opinion has shifted dramatically. A recent Guardian report revealed that support for Israel is at its lowest on record in Western Europe. That is not surprising. From Dublin to The Hague, from Berlin to Madrid, people are marching. They are drawing red lines through their cities and demanding that the EU end its complicity in war crimes.

In my city of Dublin, those protests are not an abstraction. They are personal. They are a collective cry from people who understand and have experienced occupation, colonialism and the cost of silence. They are ahead of our institutions. It is not Europe’s citizens who have failed to act. It is Europe’s leaders. Let us not pretend that our officials lack the tools to respond. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner. Nearly 30 per cent of Israel’s exports go to the European Union. Suspending the Association Agreement is a powerful and necessary lever to pull.

Article 79 allows for the suspension of this accord if one party fails to meet its obligations. And Article 2 is clear: Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, targeted attacks on civilians and healthcare workers, execution of aid staff and forced mass displacement are violations not just of human conscience, but of the fundamental values that underpin the agreement.

If we are serious about peace, a two-state solution, and the universality of human rights, then we must urgently wield this leverage. That means halting political dialogue, freezing trade privileges, suspending Israel’s participation in EU research programmes like Horizon, and  yes!  suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement in full. Suspending it would not be a radical step. It would be consistent with how the EU has treated other countries in breach of human rights clauses. It would be the bare minimum required to preserve the integrity of our founding values and save us from complete moral bankruptcy.

It is not too much to ask for a Europe where being against genocide is a given. To ask for an end to the great shame we as Europeans feel when our institutions witness this evil yet fail to act. What we need now is not more deliberation but moral clarity. No more excuses. No more delays. No more meetings that yield nothing while children in Gaza starve. When history looks back on this moment, it will not judge us by our statements but by our actions. The time for action was yesterday. But today is all we have left. 

Suspend the agreement. Sanction Israel. Stand for humanity.

Photo credits: Shutterstock.com/Anas-Mohammed