Amid Genocide, EU Eyes More Trade With Israel.
Ursula von der Leyen sees genocide as a business opportunity. Just this week, the European Commission president argued that a new “mindset” is required to bolster the weapons industry. “The continuing war in Gaza and the large-scale destabilization in the Middle East point to an era of insecurity and conflict in the region and beyond,” she said. The comment on Palestine in a speech about assisting arms makers prompts an unavoidable conclusion: Von der Leyen is exploiting the crisis to urge greater militarization, according to author and editor of the Electronic Intfada, David Cronin.
He continues with the report below:
Amid genocide, EU eyes more trade with Israel
It must never be forgotten that von der Leyen offered her full backing to Israel’s current war on Gaza as soon as it was declared.
While she may be choosing her words more carefully these days, the institution which she heads remains depraved.
On 15 February, Dimiter Tzantchev, the European Union’s ambassador in Tel Aviv, tweeted that he had a “good meeting” with Roey Fisher, who had just taken up a new senior level post in Israel’s economy ministry.
Following a freedom of information request, it was confirmed that the meeting was arranged by trade officials working for the European Commission (the EU’s executive).
Less than three weeks earlier, the same European Commission had signaled that it was taking seriously the order which the International Court of Justice delivered to Israel.
The European Commission expected the “full, immediate and effective implementation” of the court’s “provisional measures.” The measures included a demand that Israel stop killing Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has not respected those measures, all of them aimed at halting or preventing genocide. And yet the European Commission has been exploring ways to strengthen its economic relations with Israel at a time when it is perpetrating genocide, widely regarded as the worst crime against humanity.
Profiting from war crimes
In his 15 February tweet, Dimiter Tzantchev commended legislation known as “What is good for Europe is good for Israel.”
The aim of that bill is to cut the number of inspections at ports in Israel of goods already approved by the EU.
The phrase “what is good for Europe is good for Israel” was uttered by Benjamin Netanyahu in May last year.
Netanyahu was celebrating how the French supermarket chain Carrefour had entered the Israeli market. As red tape is being removed, goods on Carrefour’s shelves will “not need to pass the unnecessary bureaucratic impediment of receiving an Israeli standard,” the prime minister said.
Carrefour has subsequently boasted that it donated “thousands of personal shipments” to Israel’s troops. The firm has even expressed pride in contributing to Israel’s “national effort” – a euphemism for the Gaza genocide.
https://expose-news.com/2024/02/29/amid-genocide-eu-eyes-more-trade-with-israel/