A NUMBER OF Irish MEPs have condemned the EU’s top foreign affairs official for what they have dubbed her “pandering” to Israel.

On Thursday, European Commission vice president and high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas, announced that she had struck a deal with Israel to allow more aid into besieged Gaza. 

Since late May, more than 800 people in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli Defence Force while attempting to get aid, which is currently being delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF is a US and Israel-backed organisation that has replaced NGO aid operations in Gaza since late May after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months.

Kallas’s statement announcing the aid deal did not stipulate which agencies would be worked with, instead, it said the EU would work with “all relevant humanitarian stakeholders, UN agencies and NGOs on the ground”.

However, a spokesperson for the Commission later clarified that the GHF would not be one of the organisations the EU would be coordinating with.

While Kallas’s deal is being viewed by some as a success, Irish MEPs say it does not go far enough. 

Two MEPs, Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan, both told The Journal that Kallas’s position is no longer tenable.

Ó Ríordáin said Kallas’ statement was “as weak as could possibly be”.

“I don’t know where the moral backbone of the EU is anymore. We’re talking about a State in breach of international law, a Prime Minister who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, and she seems to be almost congratulating herself that she feels that children should be fed in Gaza,” he said. 

Ó Ríordáin said the “gutless” and “embarrassing” statement gives the impression that Kallas will not take action to suspend the Israel-EU trade association agreement, which European foreign ministers are due to discuss at a meeting in Brussels next week.

“I don’t believe her position is tenable if she’s going to continue with this line of rhetoric,” he said. 

Boylan shared this view but said the opportunity to remove her came earlier this week with the motion of confidence in von der Leyen and the Commission.  

The Sinn Féin MEP said it is “no coincidence” that von der Leyen and the Commission won the vote of no confidence and are now taking a “less progressive line” on Israel. 

“I’m absolutely furious with what Kaja Kallas has said. One, it’s playing into the hands of Netanyahu completely, because it’s legitimising the GHF aid structures,” Boylan said. 

She added: “Aid is essential, but we don’t just need to feed Palestinians, the bombing needs to stop, the murdering needs to stop. And so aid is not the only issue here.”

Boylan also criticised the fact that the statement did not call for trusted and experienced aid organisations, like UNRWA, to be permitted back into Gaza. 

Fianna Fáil MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú said she felt that Kallas’s statement was “pandering to Israel and avoiding taking any real decisive action”.

“In short, it is a fudge. We should be suspending our free trade agreement with Israel because they have indiscriminately bombed civilian targets, and continue to do so,” Ní Mhurchú said, adding that the EU undermines international law when it does not hold its trading partners to account.

Ní Mhurchú’s Fianna Fáil colleague Barry Andrews told The Journal that he welcomed the progress on humanitarian access but said it begs the question why the EU refuses to use its influence to bring an end to the multiple other breaches of international humanitarian law being carried out by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.

“This development should in no way deflect the Foreign Affairs Council from a suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement at their meeting next Tuesday,” he added. 

Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty told The Journal: “Kaja Kallas, who sits in the same group as Fianna Fáil MEPs, issued a deeply one-sided statement on Gaza this week, as usual.”

She said that while any increase in aid is welcome, more needs to be done to stop the “slaughter” of Palestinians. 

“Israel is still blocking life-saving assistance, and gestures like this are being used to blind the world while the killing goes on,” she said.