Daoud Kuttab

The EU last week faced a defining test of its commitment to human rights and international law — and it failed. Presented with irrefutable evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to consider 10 possible actions: from suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement to imposing sanctions on Israeli officials and banning trade with illegal settlements. Yet, in the end, they took the politically easy path, securing a handful of humanitarian concessions from Israel in return for shelving all meaningful accountability.

Let me be clear: aid access is essential. Gaza’s suffering is beyond comprehension. And Palestinians dying from bullets and hunger will no doubt appreciate any relief. But allowing Israel to dictate the terms of food and medical relief — as if these are diplomatic chips and not legal obligations — strips humanitarianism of its moral force. EU officials may consider what they accomplished a “diplomatic success.” They will state that they used diplomatic leverage to push for aid delivery. But what the EU hails as progress is, in truth, a lowering of the bar so far that the basic survival of a besieged population becomes the summit of European diplomacy.

This is not only disappointing. It is dangerous. The........

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