Ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, The Left (déi Lénk) criticised the Luxembourg government for what it described as a lack of courage on pressuring Israel for its actions in Lebanon.
At a joint press conference on Tuesday with the European Left Alliance (ELA) and the Luxembourg branch of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, MP David Wagner said that Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel comments on actions taken by other countries but does not take measures himself. For the three groups, one point is clear: pressure on Israel must be increased.
On Tuesday morning, a protest was also held outside the European Convention Centre in Kirchberg, organised by, among others, The Left, the Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East, and Amnesty International. Speaking to RTL afterwards, Wagner said that the EU association agreement with Israel should have been suspended years ago.
He pointed to what he described as decades of illegal occupation in the West Bank, a genocide committed since 2023, as well as the war in Lebanon, arguing that the international community must draw clear limits. “At some point, we have to tell the Israeli state that this cannot continue, that it cannot act without limits, as if there were no laws and no international law”, Wagner said.
Several EU countries, including Germany and Austria, continue to oppose sanctions and favour dialogue. A full suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement would require unanimous approval from all 27 member states.
However, Wagner argued that Luxembourg could also act unilaterally by adopting its own sanctions, which it has not done so far. He also noted that the government had not taken up The Left’s proposal to close the Luxembourg Trade Office in Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, pressure is growing within civil society for the EU to impose sanctions on Israel. A petition launched by the European citizens’ initiative Justice for Palestine has gathered more than one million signatures in a short time. According to Lucas Faletic, General Secretary of the ELA, this obliges the European Commission to respond.
Around 60 organisations and 350 diplomats have already backed the initiative.
