EU FOREIGN ministers should make it clear during meetings with their Israeli counterpart today that there will be serious repercussions if it proves true that Israel orchestrated the killing of a Hamas official by a hit squad using fake European passports, an Israeli historian has said in Dublin.
Ilan Pappé – a controversial figure in Israel due to his claims that the state’s foundation was accompanied by ethnic cleansing, as well as his support for an academic boycott of Israeli universities – said EU ministers, including Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, should be firm in their discussions with Avigdor Lieberman, due to take place today in Brussels.
“[They should] tell the Israelis that, if indeed an inquiry shows direct Israeli involvement, they would seriously contemplate a suspension of relations or some sort of diplomatic gesture which would show outrage and a serious rebuke,” Mr Pappé said.
“The Israelis were not rebuked by the EU even after Gaza. I think this would send an important message to Israelis . . . and also to the Palestinians, that Europe has not given up on them . . .
“One should hope that such events would trigger a more active European position towards Israel, but I am a bit more pessimistic about that.”
Mr Pappé, who divides his time between Israel and the University of Exeter, where he is a professor of history, said discussions of the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the Israeli media hinged on the assumption “that we did it”. He added: “There have been two phases: the first was a real pride – that this was another Entebbe – but now there is the same kind of criticism we saw of the Israeli government in 2006, when people did not question the legitimacy of the attack on Lebanon, but they were very dismayed by the performance of the army.
“Nobody in the press doubts the legitimacy of targeted assassination but they are very dismayed at the level of performance.”
Mr Pappé said the fall-out from the controversy may run deep.
“I think this, along with the Gaza operation in 2009 and other similar incidents, [is] beginning to send messages to the Israelis that they are not as good navigators as they thought between the thuggish behaviour of a rogue state on one hand and the wish to be part of what they would see as Europe and the West and the civilised world on the other,” he added.