The Czech Republic and Hungary have opposed a European Union proposal to impose sanctions against Israeli settlers in the occupied territories who attack local Palestinians, BNE Intellinews reported.
Washington said last week it would impose sanctions on four people who have killed or displaced Palestinians from their land. In December, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell proposed a similar move in December to sanction 12 settlers for abuses and penalise them, such as restricting their entry to the EU.
Previously, Prague and Budapest have often prevented the EU from taking any unified stance criticising Israel. They have pledged unqualified support for any Israeli action.
In December, the Czech Republic and Hungary (along with Austria) were among the 10 countries in the world that voted against the call for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN General Assembly.
At the same time, Israeli settlers in the occupied territories have taken the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians, killing several people and forcing them to flee their homes, with little or no attempt by the Israeli army to stop them. UN resolutions have consistently called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and stop building illegal settlements there.
Further proof of the strong alliance between the two European states and Israel came after some 80 leading Czech figures signed an open letter to the government demanding it change its pro-Israeli stance and stop ignoring the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip caused by the conflict. The letter reads:
The Czech government unconditionally supports the current Israeli government despite the humanitarian catastrophe, both in international forums and in Israel, and through its communications in the Czech Republic. We do not understand this.
The signatories of the letter call on the government to criticise human rights violations on both sides – not only by Hamas – and urge the government to join the UN International Court of Justice’s call for humanitarian support for the Gaza Strip.
The signatories also pointed to the government’s different approaches to the war in Ukraine and Gaza. They wrote:
The Czech Republic supports Ukraine on the basis of international law. However, regarding Israel, the Czech government, contrary to international law, does not take into account the basic rights of millions of Palestinians.
President Peter Pavel recently visited Israel to express his support for Israel. However, he did not express “any public reservations about Israel’s conduct of the war,” the letter notes.
Among the signatories of the letter are priest Tomáš Halík, Bishop Václav Malý, writer Radka Denemarková and former ombudsman Anna Šabatová.
Hungary and the Czech Republic have long been unhappy with what they see as the European Union’s overly critical attitude toward Israel. Both countries have called on the bloc to deepen its ties with Tel Aviv, despite Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and continued occupation and encroachment on their land since winning the 1967 war.
Both states have also forged military and intelligence ties with Israel, which has become a significant supplier of arms and security equipment to the region, as recent scandals involving the use of Israel’s Pegasus spy programme against domestic opponents in Hungary and Poland have shown.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has developed a particularly close relationship with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. Both leaders share an ethno-national vision of the state, and Orban sees Israel and Hungary as a bulwark against the “Islamisation” of Europe.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala recently stated that “we must not forget who is the aggressor and who is the victim” in this conflict. His national security adviser, Tomáš Pojár, is a former Czech ambassador to Israel and an unabashed supporter of the Jewish state.
Fiala, of the ODS party, supported the idea of moving the country’s embassy to Jerusalem, but was opposed by Foreign Minister Jan Lipavasky of the liberal Pirate party. Lipavasky was the first leading EU politician to visit Israel in October after the Hamas attack to voice his support.
The Czech Republic has already recognised Jerusalem as its capital in practice, breaking with EU solidarity in not recognising Israel’s claim to sovereignty over all of the holy city after its victory in the 1967 war.
