Politics

EU call for ceasefire in Gaza blocked by minority despite ‘overwhelming’ support

Varadkar says ‘no point’ in coming up with compromise language on ‘pauses’ if unanimity could not be found

Ireland's Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar arrives at the European headquarters to attend the summit in Brussels. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty
Ireland's Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar arrives at the European headquarters to attend the summit in Brussels. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty
Naomi O’Leary
Fri Dec 15 2023 - 15:04

A blocking minority prevented the European Union calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at a summit of leaders in Brussels on Friday, despite an “overwhelming majority” of countries now being in favour, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

“The position of the overwhelming majority of the EU countries now is that there should be a ceasefire,” he told reporters. “But not unanimity.”

In an unusual move, the EU leaders decided to make no mention at all of the conflict in their joint conclusions, with several countries feeling that if there was no reference to a ceasefire it was better not to say anything at all.

“My view and the view of others, is that if we couldn’t get unanimity on calling for a ceasefire, there was no point in coming up with some sort of interim language – ‘rolling truces’ or ‘on and off pauses’,” the Taoiseach said. “We would have been here for many, many hours, and probably would have only come up with compromise wording that nobody would have been happy with.”

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In advance of the summit, in issuing a joint call urging the EU to demand a ceasefire, and in a United Nations vote this week 17 member states backed a ceasefire while two voted against.

“Those of us who are in the majority who want there to be a ceasefire didn’t feel we should have to wait for the Americans to call for a ceasefire before Europe does. But it feels like we kind of are in that space,” Mr Varadkar said.

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The EU agreed to move towards sanctioning people who give financial support to Hamas, and asked foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell to draw up a proposed list of extremist Israeli settlers to be sanctioned over violence towards Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

A Palestinian school funded by Irish Aid was among the buildings destroyed in a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank earlier this month, in actions by settler extremists that are widely viewed as pushing the prospect of a two-state solution further away.

If the EU is unable to unanimously agree on imposing sanctions on settlers, Ireland will go ahead with a group of other European countries in jointly adopting them, Mr Varadkar said. It comes after the United States and Britain imposed similar measures.

“We won’t do it on a unilateral basis, but we will do it either as the EU or as a group of other countries acting together in concert,” he said.

“We’re talking about sanctions on illegal, violent settlers in the West Bank, who are killing Palestinians, knocking down their schools and driving them off their land. And nobody who honestly believes in a two state solution can say that we’re just going to do nothing at all about that.”

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Naomi O’Leary

Naomi O’Leary

Naomi O’Leary is Europe Correspondent of The Irish Times