Dear Mr. Stano,
You have written in a Declaration on Jenin, on 28th January 2023, that “the EU is very concerned by the heightened tensions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. We call on both parties to do everything possible to de-escalate the situation and to restart security coordination, which is vital to prevent further acts of violence”.
Since you surely wish to contribute to a peaceful arrangement, you could address to the Chairman of the Palestine Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, who has unilaterally decided to stop the security coordination with the Israeli security forces, inviting him to resume the aforesaid coordination together with the normal collaboration relationship between the parties.
Let us remind the European Union that the tragic death of at least nine armed persons involved in terrorist acts is not the same thing as the killing of at least seven unarmed civilians who were engaged in something that is not equal to terrorism, such as a prayer in a synagogue.
It may not be a detail that the killing of Jews in a synagogue has been widely celebrated in Gaza and in the West Bank, without the opposition of any Arab faction, not because of indifference but due to the fact that living in a dictatorship makes very risky every step towards peace and democracy. Nevertheless, Bassem Eid has written (Forward, January 29, 2023) that in Jenin “a Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell was reportedly on the verge of launching a major terrorist attack”.
Since the European Union admits as members only democratic entities, it would be very difficult to understand the usual equal treatment between democracies and dictatorships in the Middle East, implicating that some people are not worthy of the same freedom as Europeans and Israelis.
You have written, concerning the Jerusalem killing , that ” These terrible events demonstrate once again how urgent it is to reverse this spiral of violence”. Seth J. Frantzman (JPost, January 28, 2023) has just written about “the tendency to dehumanize the victims by portraying them as part of a cycle of violence”. Frantzman adds that “it does not seem to be able to condemn attacks on Israeli victims without trying to reference something else”. The lesson we often perceive from some media is : if Israel does not prevents murderous attacks, Jews shall be killed, if it does, Jews shall be anyway killed: this is the correct use of the famous”cycle of violence”. You should encourage freedom and safety for all people, because there is not such thing as superior and inferior people. You could take inspiration from the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly: “to attack worshippers at a synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day, and during Shabbat, is horrific. We stand with our Israeli friends”.