Israeli arms firms, such as Rafael, and the Israeli defence ministry remain eligible for the EU’s ‘Horizon’ science-programme grant
Von der Leyen’s proposed trade sanctions could be adopted by a qualified majority of EU countries, but Germany and Italy were among those who blocked them, even at the height of the Gaza war.
The main thing about Israel/Palestine is that Europe (and especially the US) has significant leverage over one of the parties, which gives it more responsibility for its transgressions.
I guess Europe’s leverage is over the Arab territories, as the main sponsor of all infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. The leverage over Israel is minimal as relations are only getting worse. But do we really have any leverage over Hamas? The same Hamas who executed dozens of Europeans on the October 7th? I doubt it, millions of euros in subsidies and zero diplomatic gains, the infrastructure is also ruble.