00:00For the first time, the EU, Israel's biggest trading partner, has moved to hit business ties
00:04over the war in Gaza. The EU's executive just put forward a plan to partially suspend
00:10the EU's free trade deal with Israel. That would hike tariffs on about 40% of the goods
00:15that Israel exports to the EU, making them more expensive and therefore less competitive here
00:21in Europe. The EU also wants to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers, several settlers
00:25linked to violent extremism and some members of Hamas. But there's absolutely no guarantee
00:30these proposals will ever kick in and they could have been laid out at any point in the
00:34war so far. So what's changed? Despite its outspoken criticism of the Israeli government,
00:40the EU's executive has been reluctant to suggest sanctions which weren't going to get backing
00:45from EU member states, including Germany, hence the broad lack of punitive action so far. But
00:51there's been rising pressure to act at an EU level from some EU governments, including
00:55Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark, and from centrist and left-wing factions in
01:01the European parliaments. The EU's top diplomat also told us pressure comes from citizens who
01:07are watching a humanitarian catastrophe unfold in Gaza. Germany is really the key holdout when
01:13it comes to securing enough backing to hit pause on part of the EU-Israel free trade deal,
01:19although Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy are among other countries which are not in
01:24favour. The Israeli government claims any measures against it will strengthen Hamas and has vowed
01:29to retaliate if the EU proposals do get adopted. There's at least one EU action which will move
01:35forward because it doesn't need backing from EU member states and that's a plan to pause around
01:4114 million euros worth of EU funding earmarked for cooperation with the Israeli government. But human
01:48rights campaigners say this is just far too little too late for Gaza. They say the EU has failed
01:54to meaningfully intervene and to use its leverage here.
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