However, the unions remain divided on Israel and hesitant to support them, and protesters are unsure of the possible legal and professional consequences, according to four people familiar with the matter. Some protesters, the people said, believe striking might pass legal muster if they argue they are merely trying to push the EU to comply with its fundamental international human rights obligations that civil servants are bound to uphold.
An internal letter seen by POLITICO sent last month to EU leadership by internal pro-Palestinian solidarity group EU Staff for Peace said some forms of protest have been subject to “intimidation” tactics, including alleged manhandling by security officials, unfair termination of contracts and a crackdown on an internal petition.
In one incident, the collective says seven officials wearing t-shirts emblazoned with “Say no to genocide” were escorted roughly from the European Council’s Europa canteen by security, with one getting their arm twisted and another forced to delete videos of the protest from their phone and phone’s trash folder.
The letter also alludes to unnamed protesters’ contracts not being renewed and others being compelled to resign; an unexplained ban on an internal pro-Palestinian survey that collected 1,514 colleagues in less than 48 hours; and the presence on June 25 in the Commission headquarters’ staff entrance of Israeli colonel Moshe Tetro, a senior defense official accused of war crimes by the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based non-profit.
Podestá denied that protesters were intimidated or compelled to resign for reasons other than “service needs and individual performance.” A European Council spokesperson acknowledged the removal of staff from its Europa canteen and echoed the Commission in rejecting the protest as “political.”
Staff challenged the Commission’s characterization of their activism as political, arguing that they only wanted the EU to be compliant with its own treaties and international law, both of which, they say, Israel has openly flouted. Israel has consistently maintained it is adhering to international law in its war in Gaza.
“This is an institution born to spread peace in Europe and globally — and the global dimension is very important to the EU, and is enshrined in all our directives and policies,” another civil servant told POLITICO. The issue is “the EU not following its founding principles.”
