BY NIKOLAJ NIELSEN
BRUSSELS - Israel's military take over of the Rafah border crossing in Gaza has alarmed the European Union amid warnings of mass causalities and a larger humanitarian disaster should a wider offensive against the border city unfold.
But while the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was concerned about Rafah, amid Belgian demands for sanctions against Israel, the European Commission hosted an antisemitism seminar on Tuesday (7 May) alongside Israel's minster of foreign affairs, Israel Katz.
An opening speech was also delivered by Margaritis Schinas, the European Commission vice-president in charge of "promoting the European way of life". When asked for a copy, Schinas' office said "there was not really a speech in itself" and instead referred to his social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
It is unclear if Schinas made any comments about the offensive as Israeli army tanks on Tuesday rolled into the Gaza side from Rafah.
Instead, Schinas later posted on X, telling his followers that the EU is well equipped to fight antisemitism in Europe.
"In the Middle East now is the time for diplomacy," he also wrote, in a possible comment on Israel's decision to break off ceasefire talks with Hamas. Hamas earlier this week said it had accepted a temporary ceasefire.
The tweet from the European Commission's second-in-command stands in contrast to intense public and private pressure by the Biden administration to curtail the Israel assault in Rafah and impose a six-week ceasefire.
It also stands in contrast to the tone of European Commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič, who described the ground offensive on Rafah as "totally unacceptable."
"It would add a catastrophe to the catastrophe," he said.
Meanwhile Katz, in the lead up to the 15th EU-Israel High Level Seminar with Schinas, defended the move and described Hamas as a sadistic and murdering gang.
The seminar was meant to address the sharp spike in anti-semitism throughout the EU following the Hamas terror attacks against Israel last October that killed around 1,200 and led to the abduction of 253 people.
Israel has since killed over 34,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian authorities, triggering widespread student protests in the United Staes and now in Europe.
And the latest push into Rafah comes despite multiple international appeals for Israel to hold off the assault.
Rafah and Kerem Shalom are the two main crossings in southern Gaza. Both are sealed by Israel, likely making the entry of aid difficult for the more one million people sheltering in Rafah.
UNRWA, the UN agency working in Gaza, said an Israel offensive in Rafah would mean more suffering and death. "The consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people," it said, on X.
The European Commission has also been accused of foot dragging.
In February, Spain and Ireland demanded the commission review an EU trade deal with Israel, which is embedded with human rights clauses.
"As far as I know the commission has not answered the letters from Spain and Ireland," said Borrell, also on Tuesday.
Borrell's comments were made ahead of a Brussel's meeting among EU ministers dealing with development. But any EU coordinated political response to Israel's offensive into Rafah will have to wait until the next foreign affairs council.
That's some two weeks away, posing further questions on the EU's slow response time to a war that risks regional conflict and more suffering in Gaza and the occupied territories in the West Bank.
