One hundred and two former French and British diplomats have signed a joint letter calling on their two governments to impose sanctions on Israel. It was published on Saturday by the French newspaper Le Monde, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Who signed it
The named signatories include Jeremy Greenstock and Emyr Jones Parry, both former British ambassadors to the United Nations; Yves Aubin de la Messuziere and Denis Bauchard, both former Middle East directors at the French foreign ministry; and Nicholas Hopton, a former British ambassador to Iran, Qatar and Yemen.
That is a specific kind of signature. These are not campaigners but people who spent careers executing the policies of the two governments they are now addressing, and who in most cases would have been required, in office, to defend positions they are now asking to see reversed. The letter's weight rests on that, and so does the obvious counter-argument: former officials carry no authority, and the governments they served are under no obligation to agree with them.
What it asks for
The letter sets out a list of specific measures for France and the United Kingdom to take jointly:
Suspend the EU-Israel and UK-Israel trade agreements. Halt arms transfers and military cooperation with Israel. Ban trade with Israeli settlements. Prohibit their own citizens from buying property on occupied Palestinian land. Guarantee humanitarian access to Gaza through UNRWA and other UN agencies. Protect access for journalists, diplomats and parliamentarians.
These are not symbolic requests. Suspending an association agreement is the strongest economic lever the European Union holds short of formal sanctions, and it requires member state agreement that has not been forthcoming. A halt to arms transfers is a matter for national export licensing in both countries, and is the measure most directly within the two governments' unilateral power.
The accusation, and what it is
The letter's language is severe. Its signatories write that "Palestinian house demolitions and rampant settler violence, with the connivance of the Israeli army and police, amount to ethnic cleansing."
That is an accusation made by the signatories. It is not a finding of any court or tribunal, and newsparlor is not in a position to establish or dismiss it. We report it as their characterization, in their words, because the substance of the letter is inseparable from the charge it makes.
Israel rejects characterizations of this kind, and has consistently maintained that its operations are directed at armed groups and conducted in accordance with international law. The report we relied on records no response from the Israeli government to this letter, and none from the French or British governments either. If any of the three responds, we will report it.
Where this sits
The letter arrives into a European argument that has been running for some time about whether trade and arms relationships should be conditioned on conduct in the occupied territories and in Gaza. Governments in both countries have taken partial steps in that direction at various points and stopped short of the measures listed here.
Those who favor such measures argue that diplomatic protest without economic consequence has changed nothing. Those against argue that sanctions would remove whatever influence the two governments retain, would not alter Israeli policy, and would penalize an ally in a region where both countries have security interests of their own.
This letter does not resolve that argument. What it does is put 102 names, several of them well known in both foreign services, behind one side of it.
We were able to verify this account from a single publication, and have not seen the letter's full text or the complete list of signatories.
