’’Trying to find solutions so that the cycle of violence is finalkky broken and that there is a final and sustainanle answer to the the legitimate security concerns  of both Israelis and Palestinians, is not antisemitism,’’ declared Peter Stano, EU’s spokesperson for foreign affairs.

An EU spokesperson on Wednesday ‘’strongly’’ rejected accusations by European Jewish leaderzs that EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is contributing to the wave of antisemitism  in the European public space with his ‘’repeated anti-Israel bias.” 

The accusation was made in a resolution adopted Tuesday following a two-day emergency conference on  antisemitism attended by over  100 Jewish leaders from across Europe who gathered in Amsterdam to discuss concrete measures to ‘’fight back’’ the record rise of anti-Jewish hatred since October 7th.

‘’I very strongly reject any accusation against High Representative Borrell as being antisemitic or contributing to the wave of antisemitism,’’ said EU lead spokesperson for foreign affairs Peter Stano in response to a question by European Jewish Press at the daily briefing of the European Commission.

In their resolution, the Jewish leaders and leaders of communities stated that ‘’ we accept that criticism of a democratically elected government is normal but we note with great concern that the European Union High Representative Josep Borrell has demonstrated, both before and after October 7th,  a clear and repeated anti-Israel bias that has been a significant contributory factor to the ongoing antisemitism and the vilification of the state of Israel as a whole in the European public space.’’

They added that Borrell ‘’has actively fostered a negative climate within the European Union External Action Service towards the State of Israel during his tenure.’’

Peter Stano said that what the High Representative of foreign affairs and security policy is doing ‘’is on behalf of the European Union to achieve consensus when it comes to positions and actions of the EU on important events that are in the domain of EU foreign policy and this also concerning the conflict in Gaza.’’

He said that Borrell ‘’is not biased against Israel.’’ ‘’He is concerned about the loss of innocent human lives during the terrorist attacks of Hamaes on the 7th of October. He was very clear and he repeated it on countless occasions. He is worried about the loss of innocent lives of the hostages which are still kept in Gaza and some of them are unfortunately not alive anymore. And he is concerned for the lives of innocent civilians that are killed in the process of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza.’’

He affirmed that ‘’trying to find solutions so that the cycle of violence is finalkky broken and that there is a final and sustainanle answer to the the legitimate security concerns  of both Israelis and Palestinians, is not antisemitism.’’

The resolution adopted by the Jewish leaders also accused Borrell of overstepping his role by ‘’ferquentlly embellishing of adding to adopted European Council positions on his own initiative.’’

‘’The ones that are judging whether or not the High Representative  is overstepping his mandate with his work are the member states,’’ said the EU spokesperson. ‘’ He act on their behalf, he forges consensus among them, he answers to them. If someone claims that he pushed something in the conclusions by the European Union on certain issues they obviously don’t know how the EU works,’’ he added ‘’So far I have not seen any declaration or statement by EU 27 member states saying that he is not doing the job he is suppose to,’’ he concluded.

In several comments he made since October 7th, Borrell has been very critical of Israel, saying among others that Israel is deliberately causing famine in Gaza, that Israel created Hamas and more recently he made a controversial statement that Israel rejected a hostage deal while Hamas accepted it. The deal he was referring to was an old proposal and not the latest on the table. He also criticized Israel for continuing its military offensive in Rafah  warning that this might have consequences on EU-Israel relations.