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New evidence suggests that Ursula von der Leyen ignored complaints that Israel was inflicting massive destruction on Gaza.

In February 2024, the European Commission’s president received an appeal from the governments of Ireland and Spain.

The joint letter referred to a preliminary International Court of Justice ruling from the previous month which deemed as plausible allegations made by South Africa that Israel had violated the Genocide Convention.

Ireland and Spain then sought an “urgent review” of whether Israel was upholding its obligations to respect human rights, as stipulated in the association agreement underpinning its relations with the European Union.

I recently submitted a freedom of information request asking for access to all briefing documents drawn up for von der Leyen on how the issues raised by Ireland and Spain should be addressed.

The European Commission has now confirmed that it has no records of any such material being compiled within the three months after the appeal by Ireland and Spain was made.

Only one conclusion can be drawn from that fact: Von der Leyen did not regard the call from Ireland and Spain as something which should prompt action on her part. She, therefore, neither asked her staff for advice about how to respond nor issued them any instructions.

Her inaction contrasts sharply with her behavior in October 2023. In the same week that members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced they were blocking the supply of food, electricity and water to Gaza, von der Leyen visited the Israeli prime minister, assuring him that he could “count on” the EU’s support.

The assurance made von der Leyen an accessory to genocide.

Admittedly, she was not alone. All of the EU’s governments – including Ireland and Spain – issued a collective statement which depicted Israel’s war of annihilation as defensive in mid-October 2023.

That declaration came out the same day that numerous genocide scholars and international law specialists issued a public warning to “sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

As a response to public revulsion at the Gaza genocide, Ireland and Spain subsequently took the minimal step of requesting that the EU-Israel relationship be reviewed. By ignoring a polite appeal from the two governments, von der Leyen was implicitly doubling down on her assurance that Israel could “count on” her backing.

In most circumstances, it would be considered poor form for a European Commission president to snub an appeal from two EU governments.

The leaders of Ireland and Spain, who signed the letter, were in no way hostile toward von der Leyen.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s taoiseach (prime minister) at the time, was even a political ally. His party Fine Gael has a long-standing affiliation with Germany’s Christian Democrats, to which von der Leyen belongs.

Green light for genocide

It is also expected of von der Leyen that she should maintain cordial relations with the European Parliament, the EU’s only directly elected institution.

In November 2023, various lawmakers in that assembly wrote to von der Leyen, seeking a “thorough review” of the EU-Israel association agreement.

As von der Leyen did not respond to that appeal, the lawmakers sent a follow-up letter in February 2024. “It is extremely disappointing that we wouldn’t be afforded the courtesy of a reply given the gravity and urgency of the issues raised,” the lawmakers stated in that follow-up – which appears to have been ignored, too.

As president of the European Commission, von der Leyen is supposed to rise above national politics.

She has refused, however, to display any independence on the issue of Palestine. The green light she has given to genocide mirrors the position taken by Germany.

In total, Germany has approved arms exports worth more than $550 million to Israel since October 2023. The official policy that defending Israel is Staatsräson – reason of state – expressed by Angela Merkel when she was chancellor is regarded as sacrosanct among the Berlin establishment despite the occasional crocodile tear shed over Palestinian deaths.

Ursula von der Leyen was part of the German government when Merkel made the Staatsräson declaration in 2008.

Although von der Leyen has lately called Israel’s targeting of civilian infrastructure “abhorrent,” she has never retracted her pledge that Netanyahu could “count on” the EU’s support.

The political situation has changed a little since Ireland and Spain sought an “urgent review” of EU-Israel relations in February last year. A majority of EU governments last month decided that such an assessment be conducted.

It will be no thanks to von der Leyen if that belated move finally results in action. She must never be allowed forget that she is an accessory to genocide.