Emma Graham-Harrison
The Guardian / August 26, 2025
A public letter signed by 209 former EU ambassadors, senior diplomatic staff and ambassadors from EU nation states has been published today, calling for urgent action over Israel’s war in Gaza and unlawful actions in the West Bank.
If the EU will not act collectively, member states must take steps individually or in smaller groups to support human rights and uphold international law, the letter says, laying out nine possible approaches.
They include suspending arms export licenses, barring trade in goods and services with illegal settlements and barring European datacentres from receiving, storing or processing data from Israeli government or commercial sources if it relates to Israel’s “presence and activities in Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied territories”.
Signatories include 110 former ambassadors, 25 former director general and two of the most senior diplomats in the EU – Alain Le Roy, former secretary general of the European External Affairs service and Carlo Trojan, former secretary general of the European Commission.
“This struck a chord,” said Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, former EU representative to the Palestinian territory and part of a steering group of 6 former diplomats coordinating the initiative which began in mid-July.
This letter was the third public call for action, and the first calling for nations to act individually if the EU does not take collective action. A proposal to partly suspend Israel from the Horizon research fund over Gaza failed in late July.
“There is such dismay now within the institutions, people are saying enough is enough,” Kühn von Burgsdorff said.
“We can’t stay paralysed if the 27 (member states) can’t take action, that betrays our values. So we have proposed nine actions that can be taken at the state level or by groups of states.”
“European governments are losing credibility not just in the global south but with our own citizens, in every member state.” He cited polling from his native Germany, traditionally a staunch supporter of Israel, that showed 80 percent of the population disagree with Israel’s actions in Gaza and two-thirds want the government to take action.
Emma Graham-Harrison is The Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem
