The president of the European Union Commission called for sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel on Wednesday, as international outrage grew over the country’s strikes on Qatar and Yemen and its ongoing starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, France. “People killed while begging for food. Mothers holding lifeless babies. These images are simply catastrophic.”

Von der Leyen’s proposed sanctions signaled a possible shift in the West’s relationship with its decadeslong ally. She said the commission, which operates as the executive branch of the European Union and can take limited unilateral actions, would end its bilateral support of Israel and suspend funding for projects within Israel, with exceptions for work with Israeli civil society and Israel’s Holocaust remembrance center. But more dramatic actions — like sanctioning Israeli ministers and partially suspending the EU’s trade agreement with Israel — would require potentially difficult votes from EU member states.

In the United States, meanwhile, the chorus of progressive voices calling for an end to the country’s complicity in the ongoing genocide escalated — but remains stymied by the status........

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