Pressure piles on Merz to punish Israel over Gaza

Pressure piles on Merz to punish Israel over Gaza

 

The German chancellor is increasingly isolated among Europe’s big beasts for refusing to endorse a Brussels plan to suspend EU research ties with Israel.

 

July 30, 2025 8:34 pm CET

By Elena Giordano, Tim Ross and Nette Nöstlinger

https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-war-in-gaza-famine-starvation-germany-friedrich-merz/

 

BRUSSELS — As famine looms in Gaza, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces pressure to drop staunch support for Israel and allow Brussels to penalize Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

 

The European Commission this week proposed halting parts of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, warning that the Israeli government has triggered a “humanitarian catastrophe” that threatens “virtually the entire Gaza population.”

 

A growing number of EU countries favor taking such a step, but Germany has so far refused to sign off on the proposal, which would mark a clear break from its traditionally unwavering support for Israel. Diplomats from multiple EU countries privately voiced their frustration with Berlin after Merz suggested he wanted to see how the situation on the ground develops in the coming days.

 

International pressure has intensified on Israel in the past two weeks amid increasingly dire warnings about the situation facing hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. In Europe, leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron and the U.K.’s Keir Starmer have announced they intend to recognize a Palestinian state, demanding Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu halts hostilities and opens up meaningful access for aid agencies to deliver food and medical supplies.

 

Even Donald Trump acknowledged this week that there is “real starvation” in Gaza.

 

Famine risk

On Monday, the Commission dropped months of diplomatic niceties in a scathing assessment of the situation that directly accused Israel of violating international humanitarian law. The document proposing action against Israel stated the risk of famine for the entire Gaza population as well as “thousands of civilian deaths” and a “collapse of basic services.”

 

The Commission’s proposal, which circulated among EU ambassadors on Tuesday, calls for the partial suspension of Israel’s access to Horizon Europe, the bloc’s flagship research program. But despite the urgency, the measure did not appear to have enough backing among EU countries at the meeting of envoys, and Germany and three other countries blocked it.

 

But there are signs Merz’s opposition is softening. The German leader said Monday that Berlin would await the outcome of a planned visit to Israel next week by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the U.K. “We naturally reserve the right to hold further discussions and make further decisions,” he said. “We assume that the Israeli government is quite willing to recognize that something must be done now.”

 

At home, Merz is also facing increasing pressure. The German coalition’s Social Democrats (SPD), along with parts of the opposition, have begun to question the country’s unwavering support for Israel in light of the Gaza emergency.

 

Government talks are scheduled for after the German foreign minister’s visit, said Derya Türk-Nachbaur, an SPD lawmaker. “I would like us to decide on more concrete measures.”

 

“Coordinating at the European level also means possibly increasing the pressure with France and England, and perhaps also not blocking measures announced by the EU,” she added. In June, the SPD formally urged the government to stop blocking partial suspension of the association agreement at the EU level.

 

No more cover-ups

“Pressure on Germany might come more from internal parties than from other EU countries,” one diplomatic source told POLITICO. Even Merz’s Christian Democrats “can no longer justify or cover up Israel’s actions.”

 

Italy, which has aligned with Germany in resisting the Commission’s plan, is also reconsidering its stance. “Italy is with Germany, but in fact, both countries are considering changing their position, and discussions are underway with the Israeli government,” the same person added. Other EU diplomats and officials, all also granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, corroborated the stance.

 

Several countries are now impatient and want the Commission to go further and suspend key trade links with Israel, including potentially a ban on importing all goods from the occupied territories, according to the diplomats and officials. 

 

A spokesperson for the Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp told POLITICO that due to “the lack of progress” on the agreements between the EU and Israel on humanitarian aid for Gaza, the Netherlands had decided to advocate for the suspension of the trade chapter of the EU-Israel association agreement​.

 

Critical days ahead

If Berlin shifts, the delicate balance in the Council could tip in favor of a formal EU rebuke of Israel, beginning with the Horizon Europe program but potentially extending to broader trade measures.

 

The diplomatic situation is changing rapidly, and observers think Germany could change its position in the coming hours or days. EU countries’ ambassadors could be recalled to Brussels for an emergency meeting to vote on the Commission’s Horizon plan, potentially within the next week.

 

One hold-up is the need for the Commission’s draft legal text to be translated from English into other EU languages for countries to give proper consideration to the proposal, one official told POLITICO.

 

France and the U.K., meanwhile, are charting their own course, with both set to formally recognize the Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

 

Elsewhere in Europe, the question of what to do about Israel and Gaza is also dominating debate. On Monday, the Dutch parliament interrupted its summer recess to hold an emergency session on the worsening humanitarian situation. The Netherlands also became the second EU country after Sweden to sanction Israeli ministers by banning two members of Netanyahu’s cabinet from entering the country.

 

“That’s because we see that the steps in Brussels are taken slowly,” Veldkamp said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that for The Netherlands, “a country that’s traditionally friendly to Israel, that is quite a step.”

 

Still, Veldkamp ruled out unilateral recognition of Palestine, saying, “At this moment, there is no process underway. Recognizing a Palestinian state now will not make much of a difference on the ground.”

 

‘Political gesture’

Italy, another key player, is waiting to see the outcome of the U.N. meeting in September before deciding whether to back recognition.

 

“If Hamas remains, then declaring the willingness to immediately recognize Palestine as a state is a political gesture, not an anathema,” said one Italian official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But we need to see what opportunities may arise in a week’s time. As things progress with the current situation, or rather the continuation of Israeli military attacks, even the Italian government could change its mind,” he added.

 

In Belgium, Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said that any decision on recognition will be postponed until at least early September. The country’s five governing parties remain split on the issue, though opposition groups are intensifying calls for Belgium to align with France’s position.

 

By contrast, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia have already taken the step to recognize Palestinian statehood, a signal that the EU consensus is fracturing further as pressure mounts for a more coordinated response to the war in Gaza.

 

Inside the Commission, divisions are increasingly public. European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera broke ranks in a radio interview on Wednesday, accusing the Commission of dragging its feet.

 

Ribera said that “for months, practically every week,” she has urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take a stronger stance. “The Commission is a reflection of national sensibilities. Institutionally it shouldn’t be so, it is supposed to be independent and represent the interests of the EU, but the truth is that everyone comes with their cultural context, their beliefs.”

 

For people on the ground, the EU’s inability to agree on what amounts to a largely symbolic measure underscores the toothlessness of its response.

 

“The mere fact that the EU can’t even agree on the smallest step possible … is a joke in the face of the scale of the suffering,” Bushra Khalidi‏, the policy lead for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories, told POLITICO. “Some countries say they need more time, but it’s just more time for more death in Gaza.”

 

Giorgio Leali contributed reporting from Paris and Ben Munster contributed reporting from London.