Is the EU a Key Player in Gaza Peace?

Is the EU playing a significant role in reaching peace in Gaza? Nadia Swan, Broadcast Journalist, shares her thoughts.

Transcript

00:00This story is back to the fore once again, and I think a lot of chat about this in the last couple of weeks,

00:06but Nadia, how crucial do you really think that the EU could be in this situation in reaching peace in Gaza?

00:13Do you think that they're actually a key player?

00:15You know, Jono, if we look at what's happened in the last couple of years,

00:19the EU hasn't really played a massive role in ceasefire negotiations.

00:23That role has really been played by the Arab countries, so we're looking at Egypt, we're looking at Qatar,

00:28the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, who have really done their best to bring some kind of ceasefire between Israel and Gaza as well.

00:39So the European Union, if you look at their role so far, has been very much,

00:43they have paid for aid and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,

00:47but they haven't really actually been a player in definitive diplomatic moves and negotiations.

00:53They're surely big enough to justify them being a key player,

00:58but it seems that there's more of this saviour movement that's going on,

01:01which seems to be the rhetoric that we're getting from the EU,

01:03and obviously a split within the bloc as well, which is causing this issue,

01:07which is why they won't get wholeheartedly behind and support one or the other side.

01:11I think you're right. Apart from providing the humanitarian aid,

01:14Israel is also a large trading partner of the European Union as well.

01:18So there's trade and there's business and economics going on there as well.

01:21And as you just rightly said, within the 27-member bloc,

01:25you've got differences between the different countries.

01:28So while one group of countries are supporting, you've got Germany,

01:32you've got Hungary supporting Israel on the grounds of the fact that they're anti-terror,

01:38they don't want to see terrorism spreading, and they defend Israel's right to survive.

01:44And then on the other hand, you've got other European countries, for instance France, Spain,

01:48looking at it more from a humanitarian point of view and saying, you know,

01:52we need to do something to stop the incessant bloodshed that's going on in there.