As more countries are vocal towards Israel’s crimes in Gaza, the State of the European Union by Ursula von der Leyen and many of the speeches during last week’s United Nations General Assembly show a potential opening for a shift in how leaders respond. Though this is too little too late, what is needed now is for European leaders to acknowledge the harrowing facts and take urgent action to make a difference on the ground. How can the EU be a leader for climate and sustainability on the world stage while the right to life in Gaza is being denied?
Authored by: Patrick ten Brink, Patrizia Heidegger, Robin Roels, Andreas Budiman
The European Union continues to position itself as a global leader on climate and human rights, yet its lack of unity to act in the face of the genocide in Gaza continues, and as evidence of ecocide grows. At the Foreign Affairs Council in July, EU foreign ministers refused to support the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, an important lever in the face of the human rights abuses, crimes against humanity and ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Already on 5 December 2024, Amnesty International published a landmark report, concluding that Israel has committed a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and documenting devastating evidence, including over 42,000 deaths – among them, 13,300 children. Now, nine months later, the United Nations acknowledges 64,656 deaths, including 18,430 children. But even these numbers are an underestimation: as The Lancet suggested already in June 2024 that available estimates should be considered as a minimum estimate, with the actual toll closer to 186,000 deaths when accounting for the many tens of thousands buried under the rubble and the disruption of the health system’s ability to record and identify deaths. On 16 September 2025, an independent UN Commission confirmed, after thorough investigations, that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza strip.
These findings have been echoed by a chorus of leading human rights, humanitarian and other civil society organisations including Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel. In August, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution declaring that Israel’s conduct meets the legal definition as laid out in the UN convention on genocide.
As regards the press covering Gaza, on 24 July 2025, Reuters, AFP, AP and BBC News issued a joint statement expressing “desperate concern” for their journalists urging Israeli authorities to allow journalists access to food. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that at least 245 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, making it one of the deadliest conflicts for reporters. The targeting of independent media is illegal and only reinforces the urgency of international action.
EU’s obligations under its own laws
Article 2 of the Association Agreement between Israel and the EU clearly defines respect for human rights and democratic principles as an “essential element” of the relationship. According to Article 79, failure to comply allows the EU to take “appropriate measures,” including suspension. The EU’s own review, carried out by the European External Action Service, found that Israel’s actions were in breach of the human rights provisions included in the Association Agreement.
Amnesty International and others have confirmed that civilians are being bombed, starved, and denied aid – in violation of international law. By the agreement’s own terms, the human rights condition was broken long ago.
The EU has taken strong measures in response to violations of international law in other contexts – including sanctions and suspensions of cooperation with Russia, Belarus, Syria, and Myanmar. Nonetheless, EU Member States have failed to find unity and to act in the case of the Israeli government, despite repeated and urgent calls by humanitarian, legal and environmental experts – not to mention the overwhelming numbers of people attending demonstrations across the continent over the last two years demanding an end to inaction and impunity. This represents a failure of both moral and legal responsibility.
In the letter of 23 June 2025 to Heads of State, the EEB, like many other civil society organisations, urgently called on Member States to support the suspension of the Association Agreement with clear demands for a ceasefire in Gaza, to allow for independent humanitarian actors to support the population, and to agree to collaborate on a peace plan for the region.
In response to the EU’s inaction, a group of international lawyers have filed a case against the Commission and Council under Article 265 TFEU – for failing to act on risks of genocide and documented crimes. They argue that the EU has both legal obligations and moral responsibility. The 2007 ICJ ruling in Bosnia vs Serbia makes it clear: actors with the power to prevent genocide have a duty to do so – whether or not they’re signatories to the Genocide Convention.
Even if this is too little too late, Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union promises, announcing the suspension of bilateral EU support to Israel, targeted sanctions, and partial suspension of the Association Agreement, have the potential of marking a turning point in the EU’s response to Gaza. Public pressure is increasing with marches from Brussels to Berlin to translate these promises into concrete and lasting action.
The EU’s leverage
The threat of suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement is an important political lever. According to Eurostat, the EU is the largest trade partner with Israel, accounting for 32% of Israel’s total trade in goods in 2024. On top, EU countries rank among the largest exporters of arms to Israel, second only to the US.
The decision on 15 July not to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement was a missed opportunity for the EU to use its leverage and respond to the humanitarian and ecological catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. It also weakens the EU’s credibility as a defender of human rights. EU Member States must rapidly suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, not only as a legal obligation but as a testament to the values of social and environmental justice that the EU claims to defend and uphold. The dramatic environmental impacts also need much closer attention, as their consequences will be felt for decades.
Environmental warfare and ecocide in Gaza
The bombing of water infrastructure and sanitation networks, agricultural land, energy systems, transport and digital infrastructures, is resulting in extensive environmental destruction of the Gaza Strip. It also undermines close to all the sustainable development goals and human rights. When ecosystems are deliberately degraded, trees and habitats are burnt and uprooted, and water is polluted, it can only be seen as ecocide – unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.
As noted in The Guardian by George Monbiot, “before the current assault on Gaza, about 40% of its land was farmed.” Despite its extreme population density, Gaza was mostly self-sufficient in vegetables and poultry, and met much of the population’s demand for olives, fruit and milk. But last month the UN reported that just 1.5% of its agricultural land now remains both accessible and undamaged. That is roughly 200 hectares – the only remaining area directly available to feed more than 2 million people. Part of the reason is the systematic destruction of farmland by the Israeli military. Ground troops have demolished greenhouses, bulldozers have toppled orchards, ploughed out crops and crushed the soil, and planes have sprayed herbicides over the fields.” […]
“The Israeli government has been felling Palestinians’ ancient olive trees for decades to deprive them of subsistence, demoralise them and break their connection with the land. Olives are both materially crucial, accounting for 14% of the Palestinian economy, and symbolically powerful: if there are no olive trees, there can be no olive branch. Israel’s scorched-earth policy, in conjunction with its blockade of food supplies, guarantees famine. Before the current assault, people in Gaza had access to about 85 litres of water per person per day, which, while sparse, meets the recommended minimum level. As of February this year, the average had fallen to 5.7 litres.”
This shows that genocide is deeply interconnected with ecocide. Both involve the destruction of life and ecosystems that support life. Genocide has regularly targeted the cultural and ecological foundations that sustain communities, while ecocide devastates the ecosystems on which communities and species depend for survival. At their core, both acts deny the fundamental interconnectedness of human and ecological systems, reducing living beings—whether people or nature—to obstacles or resources to be eliminated. Recognising this relationship highlights why both should be seen as twin crimes. Just as with genocide, ecocide needs to be fully recognised under international law as a serious crime for which perpetrators need to be held to account.
Militarism fuels climate collapse
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has dropped 75,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza. More than 90% of homes and 88% of schools have been damaged or destroyed, roads, farms and water treatment facilities have been bombed, and at least 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed by Israel.
Beyond the human toll, the environmental consequences of this assault are catastrophic. Experts warn that these bombings have released vast amounts of asbestos into the air, posing a long-term public health hazard, with cancer cases expected to rise for decades as a result of inhalation exposure to the deadly particles. Furthermore, explosives and chemical residues are leaching into soil and groundwater, while fires and detonations are worsening air pollution, including dangerous levels of fine particulate matter. These hazards pose severe, lasting threats to public health and ecological integrity, disproportionately affecting children and vulnerable people. This is not only a humanitarian emergency, but also an unfolding environmental disaster in real time.
Already in June 2024, the UN Environment Programme had carried out an environmental impact assessment investigating the damage resulting from Israel’s military actions in Gaza. It declared the collapse of water and solid waste systems, and widespread contamination of soil, water and air with hazardous substances.
Militarism is a major, but largely ignored, driver of environmental and climate collapse. Armed conflicts and the use of military force regularly result in widespread environmental damage, which is often intentional. There is, for instance, evidence and growing international concern that Russia has intentionally caused environmental damage in Ukraine as part of its war strategy. Ukraine is now seeking recognition of the crime of ecocide under the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A legal red line crossed
What is Europe’s role in all of this? A moral and legal line crossed with continued arms exports, diplomatic cover, and the ongoing failure to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement – a deal that ensures the EU remains the most lucrative trading partner for Israel. Through this, the EU is helping sustain the Israeli government’s war machine and its system of apartheid against Palestinians and illegal occupation of their land. The EU, conceived from the ashes of war as a peace project, is now failing to use its influence and power to halt the destruction and pain described above.
This is a moment of reckoning for the EU, Member States’ governments, and all parts of our societies. The EU-Israel agreement of July 10 to increase flows of humanitarian aid is welcome but woefully late given that not only starvation, but famine has now been confirmed by the UN in Gaza, exacerbated by the fact that Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid in recent months. It should not lead to inaction on the EU-Israel association agreement.
The EU cannot claim global climate and sustainability leadership on the world stage while turning away from genocide. The EU cannot call for environmental safeguards while propping up environmental destruction. Europe cannot build a livable future while the right to life in Gaza is being denied. To those who work in environmental policy, who speak of justice and planetary boundaries: this is your fight too.
The Way Forward
This September’s UNGA was clear that it is time to act. From the UN Assembly down to the people marching on the streets. So far, EU Member States have not been able to act united, but the tide is shifting. Civil society is mobilising for a ceasefire, humanitarian action, sanctions on perpetrators, an end to arms exports and, above all, building consensus for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Not acting can only be seen as political cowardice and complicity.
It is essential that the EU and its Members States act upon the overwhelming evidence and honour their moral and legal responsibilities by:
- Suspending the EU–Israel Association Agreement;
- Ensuring the immediate implementation of the EU’s commitments on humanitarian aid;
- Halting all EU research and defence funding to Israeli entities involved in violations of international law;
- Imposing targeted sanctions on the individuals and companies responsible for and complicit in genocide, war crimes, and environmental destruction;
- Calling on all EU Member States to comply with the ICC arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity;
- Ensuring the freedom of speech and the right to protest across the Member States, preventing the criminalisation of peaceful protest.
These are legal obligations, rooted in EU treaties and international law. Justice, peace, and environmental protection must apply universally. If the EU fails to act when law and need are clear, it risks eroding credibility and undermining its own foundations, as Gaza demonstrates. The environmental movement has long said that climate change, access to resources and pollution affect the most vulnerable first and worst. We must act not only in solidarity, but in defense of the very values and rights we claim to uphold. There can be no environmental transition which ignores genocide and human rights. As with Apartheid in South Africa and the Vietnam War, the world once stood up and spoke out. Gaza is this generation’s turning point in history, and policymakers must choose which side of history they stand on.
