‘Israel is allowed to act without consequences’: EU lawmaker
We’ve spoken to Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament (MEP) who signed on to today’s letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief demanding an emergency meeting to take action against Israel.
As we reported earlier, the letter calls for sanctions to be imposed against Israel as well as for Kaja Kallas to lobby EU member states to implement an arms embargo on Israel, among other things.
Boylan said racism is a factor in why the EU so far has failed to take concrete actions against Israel over its deadly bombardment and starvation-inducing blockade of Gaza.
“Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,” Boylan told Al Jazeera. “We saw the swift action that was taken when Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, and we haven’t seen any action from the EU” regarding Israel.
Boylan added that Israel also remains “quite influential” in the EU. “There’s a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you’re witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,” she said.
Hind Rajab Foundation calls on Netherlands to arrest two Israelis accused of war crimes
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), in collaboration with the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), has filed a criminal complaint with the authorities in the Netherlands, calling for the arrest of two Israelis it accuses of war crimes committed in Gaza.
The foundation and GLAN had already filed a complaint against the two men in Belgium after learning that they were in the country to attend the Tomorrowland music festival. The two were interrogated and later released. The prosecutor’s office said it would not release further information at this stage of the investigation.
Now, the HRF says the individuals are in the Netherlands and therefore urged Dutch authorities to take action.
The Belgium-based HRF has been campaigning for legal action against Israeli soldiers over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The foundation is named after a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli fire while fleeing Gaza City with her family, early in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Since its formation last year, the foundation has filed dozens of complaints in more than 10 countries, targeting both low- and high-ranking Israeli military personnel.
One person killed in Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon
The Lebanese Ministry of Health says one person has been killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the man killed worked as an iron collector. “He had dropped his children off at home and then went to pick up groceries from the store before being targeted by an enemy drone with a missile,” NNA reported.
