JJP writes to the EU Ambassador to the UK
On 2 May 2025, JJP wrote to the European Union Ambassador to the United Kingdom, asking to brief to UK Heads of Mission on JJP’s work and to discuss the current very dangerous situation in which in which right-wing Israel finds a ready enabler in Donald Trump.
Our letter is below:
Pedro Serrano 2 May 2025
EU Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Dear Ambassador Serrano,
We are writing to ask if we can brief the EU Heads of Mission on the work of our group. We are Jews for Justice for Palestinians. With some 2,750 members, we are the largest Jewish peace group in the UK or Europe. You can view our principles and the range of advocacy work on our website, jfjfp.com.
We have been lobbying in support of Palestinian rights for 23 years in London. We have lobbied the FCDO, MPs, Peers and embassies. As part of European Jews for a Just Peace delegations, I have lobbied European Union institutions in Brussels for more than 10 years, including writing to former High Representative Borrell many times and meeting Head of Division (MENA 2) Michael Mann and his predecessor Neil Mac Call several times. I have written three times to the UN, successfully advocating against endorsement of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.
We note the strong role that the EU has played in relation to Ukraine. We hope the EU could play an equally strong role in prevailing upon Israel to turn away from occupation and towards peace..
As well as discussing our work, we would like to discuss the dangerous developments in Gaza and the West Bank. We are in a potentially catastrophic moment in which right-wing Israel finds a ready enabler in Donald Trump for its expansionism, its disregard for human rights and international law, and its willingness to apply unlimited lethal force to achieve its ends. Donald Trump’s support is evident in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing coalition partners claim the war on Gaza is intended solely to destroy Hamas but Israel’s conduct of the war belies that. The Palestinian death toll now stands at more than 52,000, with more than14,000 missing, presumed dead. More than 110,000 are injured or maimed. Two million people have been displaced. The deliberate destruction of hospitals, shelter, sanitation, clean water and food supplies has caused a public health catastrophe. António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, said “No food, fuel, medicine and commercial items have entered Gaza since 2 March.”1.
The Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 was undoubtedly a crime against humanity. However, as António Guterres told the Security Council on 24 October 2023, “The deadly assault by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum… the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation…”2 Israel’s response to the attack has continually flouted the principles of proportionality and discrimination central to the protection of civilians in time of war, and therefore goes far beyond legitimate protection of its population. Authoritative scholars of genocide and holocaust studies have come to the devastating conclusion that Israel is committing genocide.3
Netanyahu’s coalition partners want to resettle an emptied Gaza, and there are clear signs Netanyahu intends to do so, with Donald Trump’s support. On 20 March, Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, made a thinly veiled, public threat to cut off US aid to Egypt unless Egypt agrees to take in Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza. A day later, the Israeli Defence Minister announced the creation of a “Voluntary Emigration Bureau for Gaza residents interested in relocating to third countries.”4
It is also clear that Donald Trump supports the long-held desire of the entire Israeli right wing to annex most or all of the West Bank. Therefore, the settlement approvals, the settler violence, the displacement of Palestinian communities, the attacks on Palestinian resistance groups, and the number of Palestinian dead, all of which have increased several-fold since 7th October 2023, can be expected to continue. In an ominous echo of Gaza, some 40,000 Palestinians have been expelled from refugee camps.
If the Israeli government is allowed to get its way, the consequences for the Palestinians will be devastating. The deaths and destruction will increase still further as the IDF uses live fire to force the Palestinians over the borders. The Palestinians of Gaza may well actually be destroyed “in whole or in part” as “a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”5.
More widely, allowing Israel to get its way would be a severe blow to respect for international law.
The only way to prevent these Israeli policies from taking their course is for the EU, or a coalition of willing countries, to issue a demarche on Israel that there will be severe diplomatic and economic consequences if it does not desist. Such demarches have been given over the past 20 years to prevent settlement building in the strategic Area E1 of the West Bank. Demarches were effective before and can be effective again.
We hope to hear from you shortly to arrange a meeting.
Arthur Goodman
Parliamentary and Diplomatic Officer
1. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161996
2. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-3ouncil-3he-middle-east%C2%A0
3. https://jfjfp.com/voices/paper-on-legal-characterisation-of-israeli-assault-on-gaza/
5. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf