EU official weaponising anti-Semitism to block sanctions on Israel over Gaza genocide

A senior European Union official has been accused of weaponising anti-Semitism to obstruct efforts to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law in Gaza, including acts widely described as genocide. Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, lobbied EU ambassadors in Tel Aviv to prevent the imposition of sanctions against Israel by invoking unsubstantiated claims of anti-Semitism.

Details of von Schnurbein’s intervention were revealed in a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by EUObserver. The document shows that she urged EU envoys not to proceed with a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement—a 25-year-old deal that grants Israel preferential trade access worth over €1 billion ($1.09 billion USD) annually.

The EU launched a formal probe into the agreement on 20 May, amid mounting evidence that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza. The review could result in the suspension of trade benefits, marking a significant shift in EU-Israel relations. The EU’s own foreign service, alongside the UN and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has documented the use of starvation, mass bombardment of civilian areas, and the targeting of essential infrastructure by Israeli forces.

Von Schnurbein’s remarks were made during a 29 May meeting with EU ambassadors in Tel Aviv. According to the leaked memo, she warned that punitive measures risked fuelling what she called “ambient antisemitism”. She also claimed that even humanitarian gestures by EU staff, such as bake sales to raise funds for Gaza, could create a hostile environment for Jews. 

In a further attempt to downplay Israeli crimes, Von Schnurbein dismissed reports of starvation and war crimes as “rumours”, contradicting the assessments of the EU Commission’s own staff, the UN, and the ICJ.

READ: A ‘review’ of Article 2 of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel? Meddling with the EU’s own legal obligations

Five EU member states pushed back against Von Schnurbein’s attempt to shield Israel by weaponising anti-Semitism . One ambassador reportedly told von Schnurbein directly: “These are facts [Israeli war crimes], and to bring them up is not antisemitic.”

Von Schnurbein, a German baroness with no legal or diplomatic mandate on foreign policy, was accused by Amnesty International of spreading “inaccurate, untruthful” information. Eve Geddie, Amnesty’s head of office in Brussels, warned that her intervention blurred the line between Jewish identity and Israeli state policy.

The controversy comes ahead of a key Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 15 July, where EU foreign ministers will discuss the possible suspension of the Association Agreement. If adopted, it would mark the first time the EU has acted on a decades-old demand by human rights groups to apply its own conditionality clauses.

The agreement explicitly ties trade benefits to the respect for human rights and democratic principles. Legal experts and EU lawmakers have long argued that Israel is in breach of these conditions through its prolonged military occupation, illegal settlement expansion, and repeated assaults on Gaza.

Despite the killing of over 58,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children, Israel continues to enjoy full trade privileges with the EU. Genocide scholars, UN agencies, and the ICJ have all pointed to credible evidence that Israel is committing genocide, including through systematic targeting of food supplies and civilian infrastructure.

Von Schnurbein’s lobbying, critics say, reflects a broader pattern in EU institutions where anti-Semitism is invoked not to protect Jewish communities but to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli crimes. 

READ: 27 former EU envoys call for suspension of agreement with Israel ahead of ministerial meeting