Debate contributions by Hannah NEUMANN

Mr President, dear colleagues, we all have a right to hope, but we also have the duty to face reality and to act accordingly. There is a ceasefire in Gaza on paper, but for Palestinians, little has changed: airstrikes continue, the Israeli Government severely limits humanitarian aid, children sleep in rain-soaked blankets, cold, fragile, hungry. While the world focuses on Gaza, violence by the Israeli military and settlers is escalating in the West Bank with complete impunity. People are shot while harvesting olives. Just last month, the Israeli military shut down the last Palestinian seed bank after they had destroyed its seed production facility in Hebron this summer. Seeds are not terrorists. This is not about Israel's security; this is an attack on Palestinian food sovereignty. And it's systemic. Good roads for Israelis only; broken roads and endless checkpoints for Palestinians on their own land. One set of laws for Palestinians; another one for Israelis. An Israeli child throwing a stone might get an angry look at worst, while a Palestinian child can be shot dead or held for years in administrative detention without due process. All of this is meant to send a single chilling message: you have no future here. We may have grown used to this reality, dear colleagues, but we should never accept it. That is why I urge the Commission and Member States to finally implement the measures announced in the State of the Union: suspend the association agreement – at least its trade provisions, impose targeted sanctions on ministers, on settler organisations and their donors, and finally, protect those who uphold international law by activating the blocking statute to defend the International Criminal Court. I was in Palestine with six colleagues last week. I encourage all of you to go and see for yourselves – because if we allow one terror to justify another terror, only terror.

Mr President, dear colleagues, in Iran, repression against Baha'is has reached a new level of cruelty: raids, arrests, confiscations, even executions. Picture this scene repeated a thousand times across in Iran today: a woman – Baha'i, Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri – standing in her doorway, her door forced open by men who fear her voice more than she fears their violence. Her crime? She teaches, she believes, she simply refuses to disappear. Doors shattered, bodies beaten, families torn apart: all that only to preserve the power of a small circle of clerics who build their rule on repression and fear, on erasing identity, belief and freedom. But the state that imprisons people for their faith or gender is not strong, it is terrified. A regime that seizes Baha'i homes is not powerful, it only shows how fragile its own worlds have become. When you silence one woman, her voice returns through millions, through Kurds, Baloch, Baha'is, Azeris, women and men across Iran and in Europe – all those who refuse to be divided, all those whose hearts beat for freedom. Iranians say: 'from heart to heart there is always a path'. Our solidarity is with the people of Iran, and our pressure on this regime will only increase. 'Woman, life, freedom'. My heart goes out to my Baha'i friends up there.

Madam President, dear colleagues, today we will adopt EDIP. And while the result is acceptable, the path to reach it explains all too well why we are once again in a mess when it comes to Ukraine. Donald Trump has presented his 28-point 'peace plan'. Let's be clear: this is not a peace plan. It is a demand for capitulation designed to distract from the Epstein scandal closing in on him back home. And he appears perfectly ready to sacrifice Ukraine's security – and Europe's – in the process. In Europe, our leverage over Trump is minimal because we remain dependent. Our defence industry is fragmented and we still lack key capabilities Ukraine urgently needs – from air defence to military intelligence. While, on the macro level, every head of state decries the lack of strategic autonomy, of European sovereignty, on the micro level, Member States still turn every attempt to fix this mess into an exercise in protecting national perks and business as usual. First SAFE, now EDIP: Member States are carving out loophole after loophole, instead of strengthening a truly European defence industry and working together to close capability gaps. Dear colleagues in the Council, by the way, where are you? Strategic autonomy does not come from Sunday speeches. It comes from Monday to Friday actions. I thank the rapporteurs and the colleagues who stood firm in the trilogue – because either we defend the European project together or there will be soon no more project to defend.

Madam President, dear colleagues, we are no longer at peace, and Putin moves us closer to war week after week. Drones shut down our airports. Russian fighter jets cross our skies. Disinformation divides our societies. And the US? A shaky ally at best. This challenge is far too big for any Member State to face alone. Whenever national governments feel overwhelmed, they call on the EU to fix the problem. Strategic autonomy, European serenity, a true defence union – the speeches of heads of states are grand. The actions? Not so much. Transfer the necessary powers to the EU? No. Provide the budget we need? A sure no. But when Europe then can't perform miracles with this non-support, the same capitals are the first ones to point the fingers. Dear colleagues in the Council, we don't have time for these games anymore. Together, we are 500 million people with one of the world's strongest economies. Either we defend every inch of the European project together or there will be no more European project. And when that happens, by the way, your handy European scapegoat will be gone as well.

Madam President, dear colleagues, Donald Trump may get a ceasefire signed, but for sure he has neither the ability nor the patience to build lasting peace. His plan is riddled with flaws: no path for Palestinian self-determination, no timeline for Israel's full withdrawal, no agreement on disarming Hamas, no word on accountability for the crimes of the past two years. Trump wants the applause and counts on everyone else to deal with the messy reality, and on the Gulf countries and Europe to pay the bill. But who says we need to just nod along? It's time for Europe to move from being the passive payer to using our leverage, to finally break the cycle of rebuilding what will only be destroyed again. The hostages are free. May they, and their families, find the strength to heal. But for civilians in Gaza, little has changed. They still suffer from Israeli attacks, from Hamas violence, from starvation. The Arab states need to keep the pressure on Hamas; Europe needs to keep the focus on the Israeli Government. Netanyahu still turns aid on and off at will. As long as food and medicine do not reach everyone, consequences – from the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement to sanctions – need to be back on the table. While the world watches Gaza, our attention needs to extend to the West Bank. Settler violence grows, in an open attempt to undermine the two-state solution. Palestinians have a right to their own state and to ownership of reconstruction. Europe was too divided to stop the war. Let us at least be united now, to protect and nurture the fragile hope that remains.

Madam President, finally: the snapback. For too long, the Iranian regime bent the rules, mocked our patience and profited from our hesitation – that, at least, is over now. But sanctions only matter if they are fully implemented. So we need to close the loopholes that EU companies still use for dual-use goods, end the golden visa schemes that the regime still exploits, ensure that countries fully comply as UN sanctions apply to everyone and above all, sanctions must hit the regime, not the people. Dear colleagues, this snapback alone will not bring security. The regime still hides enriched uranium, it supplies Shahed drones to Russia, killing Ukrainians, and expects fighter jets in return, threatening Saudi Arabia and Israel – a partnership of repression that fuels instability far beyond Iran's borders. Inside Iran, repression gets worse. Three people are executed every day, each one a message of fear to a generation that dares to dream of freedom. Political prisoners are on hunger strike, risking their lives to end this madness. They need our attention and our solidarity. The best way to stop a nuclear Iran is to break this cycle of violence and fear that sustains the regime is to finally put the IRGC on the EU terrorist list. Our support belongs not to the mullahs, but to the people in Iran who risk everything for freedom and dignity. (The speaker concluded in a non-EU language)

Mr President, dear colleagues, Afghanistan is the only country where girls are forbidden to go to school, where women are banned from work, from travel – even from speaking. Half a nation erased from public life. This is not culture. It is not internal affairs. It is gender apartheid. While rescuers work to save families buried by earthquakes, the Taliban cut the internet, isolating 40 million in a deliberate digital darkness. This is calculated cruelty. Dear colleagues, three years ago, all of us in here said we will not turn our back on Afghanistan. Today, that promise is being broken. Instead of standing with Afghan women, European governments travel to Kabul in secret, bargaining with terrorists over deportations, trading away rights and promises for short-sighted deals and a handful of votes. But our duty is the opposite: to name the Taliban's crimes, not to normalise them; to speak up for Afghan women, not to silence them; and to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, so that evidence is preserved, justice is possible, and these shady deals are denounced as what they are – complicity.

Mr President, as we speak, families in Israel mourn the victims of 7 October while hostages remain in captivity, enduring hell. As we speak, families in Gaza cannot grieve. More bombs are falling and settlers terrorise those in the West Bank. As we speak, Jews in Europe face anti-Semitic attacks, racism against Muslims is rising and Palestinians worldwide wonder on which they their victims will be mourned. Dear colleagues, we all hope for a deal to end this suffering. But negotiations do not feed the starving. We need to increase pressure for more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. And even if an agreement comes, our work will not be over. Rebuilding will need resources. Peace will need protection. Healing will need specialists. And justice will need accountability. Europe was too divided to pressure ceasefire. Let us at least be united and lead to protect and nurture whatever fragile hope may soon emerge.

Madam President, dear colleagues, famine has reached Gaza City. People are told to leave but have nowhere to go. Children are starving. Families are bombed. While Trump and Netanyahu dream of turning Gaza into the Riviera, the European Union is paralysed by shameful infighting. While we debate, they create facts on the ground. And yes, it's above all the German Government that blocks action in the Council. That is unacceptable. Because if we are serious about ending the suffering, about offering a real alternative to the Trump-Netanyahu alliance, we must stand united, and with our regional partners, and with the hundreds of thousands in Israel demonstrating for an end to this brutal war. The Israeli Government has promised again and again to let in more humanitarian aid. Before the summer, High Representative Kallas, you announced another such deal. But people in Gaza are still starving. Isn't it time to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, then? For months, Israeli ministers have incited violence and pushed new settlements to bury a two-state solution. Isn't it time to sanction them, then? So instead of shouting at each other in here, let's unite behind a simple truth. From the river to the sea, all people should be free. Free from hunger. Free from bombs and missiles. Free from hostage-taking and terror attacks. Free from repression, antisemitism and racism. Free to love, live and to raise their children in peace.

Mr President, dear colleagues, Assad may be gone, but the hate and division he sowed still poison Syria. The massacres of Alawites on the coast, the brutal attack on Christians praying in Mar Elias Church, hundreds of violent flashpoints across Syria – no community is untouched. Syria's authorities must act. Heal the deep wounds, pursue real justice, dismantle armed radicalism and rebuild trust shattered by war. We Europeans have a responsibility too, not to use Syrians as pawns in a political game, but to stand with them and to say it clearly: today's Syria is not safe. We must restart asylum processes, allow family reunification, create safe ways to visit Syria without forcing return. There are many in this Chamber who speak so passionately for persecuted Christians. But why don't you show the same passion extending Christian values to all Syrians seeking refuge in Europe? As in Leviticus 19, verse 33, it says: 'the foreigners residing amongst you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt too.'

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the Iranian regime fuels terror at home and abroad, through executions, through proxies, through a nuclear programme built for impunity. Hamas, one of its proxies, committed the horrific 7 October attacks. Netanyahu's government responded with brutal force in Gaza, blocking humanitarian aid, expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank. But what did Netanyahu's and Trump's bombs achieve? The centrifuges will spin again. The hate has deepened. This is not good versus evil. It is a tragedy of leaders abusing power and of people caught in between. Because Israel is also the protesters in the streets. Palestine is also the civilians trapped between occupation and Hamas. Iran is also the women who burn their hijabs and whisper 'azadi'. These people are not collateral to geopolitics; they are the path to peace. And if we centre our foreign policy on them, on human dignity and international law, we can support their call for a lasting peace rooted in freedom for everyone. And because I was somehow just awarded 30 seconds, allow me to raise my frustration with the fact that Kaja Kallas is not here today to discuss this crucial topic for us here in the European Union and for the future of the region, and I would hope that she could be here with us a bit more often.

Madam President, as we discuss next week's NATO summit, I can't help but think of the old fairy tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. A vain ruler parades around in invisible garments, and everyone nods along, too afraid to point out the obvious. Welcome to The Hague, 2025. Enter Donald Trump, emperor extraordinaire, complete with 19th century parades and self-glorifying AI videos. The summit lasts just one day, because that's his attention span. Everything is carefully choreographed so he won't be bored, or worse, offended. No talk of climate, gender or disinformation – too risky. Real security threats – too complex. Instead, capitals around the alliance are called in a bidding war over percentages. Simple numbers may be Trump's favourite dress, but they for sure won't make us safer. While we all tailor new imaginary suits of statistics to flatter the emperor, hybrid attacks, military conflicts, climate risks, and authoritarian threats only grow. Yet no one dares to lift the veil and say he's actually not wearing any clothes. Dear colleagues, we don't need kings; we need security. If the ruler from Washington needs to be told that he wears the best of all dresses, fine. But let's make sure that before all, we need a dress of real security for our citizens and our friends in Ukraine.

Madam President, in Israel, families sleep in bunkers. In Iran, people are trapped between bombs and a regime that dragged them into a war they never chose. They feel relief because the IRGC was hit, because the nuclear programme was set back, but they are also afraid of Israeli escalation. Where should 10 million Tehranis evacuate to in just a few hours? This crisis didn't just start last week. It's the result of years of failure. Trump walked away from the nuclear deal, the Islamic regime advanced its programme, and Borrell and Mora were played again and again by Tehran. This isn't your fault, HR/VP, but you are in charge now, and Europe must finally lead. The window for a free Iran is wider than it has been in years. We must prevent further escalation, we must ensure that this regime never gets a nuclear bomb, and we must support all those inside Iran that are risking everything for freedom. While the situation between Iran and Israel is complex, the one in Gaza is not. What the Israeli Government is doing is brutal. It is unlawful. It does not free the hostages, it serves only the cynical agenda of a few clinging to power while children starve beneath rubble in Gaza. If the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is honest, it must lead to suspension, and at the same time, our support for Israeli civil society must grow because they too are under attack. We need all hands on diplomacy, all eyes on those struggling in Gaza, in Israel and in Iran. The region has suffered far too long under men who mistake violence for strength.

Mr President, dear colleagues, spyware abuse is a massive threat to our fundamental rights, it corrodes democracy from within – we all know it. Yet, Member States again and again say they need it for 'national security'. Well fine, then let's talk national security, because spyware companies claim they make us safer, while evidence proves the opposite. The exploits they use are later on picked up by Russia and others and used against us. The highest number of targets are lawmakers, military officials, even governments – the odds are high that people in this very room are infected right now. This is absurd, dear colleagues, given the security threats Europe is already facing. And AI is just turbocharging this danger: combining, analysing, exploiting data at a scale we have never seen. If we don't act now, the problem will be a hundred times worse in a year's time. And we know how to stop this – we spelled it out in the Pegasus report two years ago. So to the Council: get your act together and fix this before it is too late. You in Poland above all should know this.

Madam President, dear colleagues, Europe has been too cautious for too long. What we see in Gaza is unbearable. Every day, children are dying from hunger, journalists shot for doing their job, doctors and nurses killed trying to save lives, entire neighbourhoods turned to dust. Netanyahu's war has long past the bounds of self-defence, yet we still deliver weapons – also weapons used in Gaza and to expand illegal settlements – and this needs to stop. The review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is long overdue, and it has to lead to the suspension of programmes. Criticising a government, dear colleagues, is not the same as attacking a country and its people. And I want the people of Israel to know: we remain committed to our friendship and our partnership, but the horror in Gaza is damaging our relationship with your government. Dear colleagues, if we allow horror to justify new horror, only horror can grow.

Madam President, Donald Trump claimed he would end the war in Ukraine in days. One hundred days later, he didn't get anywhere except that we in Europe now see how dangerously dependent we are on a man who wants Europe to fail. But we can stand up to this, dear colleagues. We need to strengthen Ukraine militarily and close our own capability gaps, and I urge all Member States to get behind Kaja Kallas' initiative. We must further weaken the aggressor, Russia. The initiative by the Commission to end Russian gas imports by 2027 is a good start. Dear colleagues, let's make it bolder in this House. We have to deepen Ukraine's EU integration, starting with defence, and ensure that significant amounts of SAFE and EDIP money are used to build this win‑win cooperation, and we must support Ukraine consistently in its path to get closer to EU membership fast. Europe has always been stronger together and it will be even stronger with Ukraine.

Mr President, on Tuesday mornings, I kiss my kids goodbye as they leave to school. On Tuesday mornings in Iran, hope is hung from cranes. 975 executions last year, 230 already this year. In the Islamic Republic, death is declared a necessity to protect power against the will of the people. This regime builds gallows where bridges are needed. It intimidates when people ask for freedom. It harasses when people ask to choose their own path, it kills when its power is questioned. In this system, people are not meant to live freely. They are meant to serve, to obey, to stay silent until death, if need be. This regime terrorises its own people. It spreads terror across the region, and the long arm of the IRGC brings this terror to Europe. Spying. Intimidating. Kidnapping. Killing. What more do Member States need to put the IRGC on the terror list?

Madam President, colleagues, what a time to shape European foreign policy. Russia and China are launching one hybrid attack after another on the one side, the US Government preoccupied with weakening us through trade wars and bullying on the other – both trying to tear European unity apart. And here we stand between a rock and a hard place, or we finally wake up and become a power of our own. We hold all the cards, dear colleagues: the people, the money, the skills. We are seen as the reliable, the predictable partners. So many governments, so many individuals are waiting for us to rise to the challenge. So let us stand united – united in our commitment to the values this Union is built upon: democracy, international law and the burning desire for freedom. But what credibility do we have if we only help the most vulnerable when their governments accept forced returns? When the same people that demand the ICC to act more forcefully against Putin attack it over its arrest warrants against Netanyahu? When the Commission deepens security cooperation with Türkiye while Erdoğan jails his main opponent? Like many, dear colleagues, I am ready to defend this Union with weapons if need be. Not the territorial notion, but the vision of its founding fathers and mothers, the values enshrined in the first articles of the Lisbon Treaty: freedom, justice, democracy. Dear colleagues, let's not lose sight of what we are here to protect in the days, weeks and years to come.

Madam President, dear colleagues, Europe needs to spend more on defence. And we, Commission, Council and this House, need to make sure that more spending actually leads to more security – security for European citizens and for Ukrainians – and not to higher profits for the defence industry. Let me be clear, we, Greens, are ready to support the defence industry where it matters: access to finance and raw materials, securing supply chains, less bureaucratic hurdles, more skilled workers. But this isn't a one-way street. I expect you, in the Commission and the Council, to make this very clear in the strategic dialogue that you are going to have with the defence industry. All this extra money must result in extra security and not in extra shareholder returns. And if there will be no serious answer, no fair contribution from industry, then yes, expect our calls for an excess profit tax to grow only louder in this House, across party lines, as it does in the UK already.

Madam President, 14 years of war, of bombs, torture, people disappearing without a trace: Syrians have gone through hell. Today, Assad is gone and many have a fragile hope for a brighter future. At the same time, violence is erupting again. The country clearly stands at a crossroads. Those working for peaceful transition are asking us, the EU, for support, not to steer the wheel, but to be the wind in their backs; to support decisively, but not naively – decisively, because hesitation means losing this window of opportunity. We must ease sectoral sanctions that are crushing ordinary citizens. We need to support reconstruction, back democratic reforms and transitional justice, and ensure that the Syrian diaspora can contribute. If we don't, others will fill the void, dear colleagues. But we must not support naively, because support must come with conditions: no new dictatorship, no new violence, no carving up the country like warlords, no exclusion of women opposition voices. And to the foreign powers still meddling in Syria – Turkey, Israel, Iran, Russia – this is not your chessboard. Let Syrians finally reclaim their own future. None of this is easy. None of this is quick. Fighting erupted again over the weekend, fuelled yet again by external interference and foreign fighters. This is exactly the vicious circle that Syrians want to break and that this new government must break. That's why we need to step up our support – so that Syrians can rebuild their homes, heal their wounds and turn their country into a country for everyone.

Mr President, I guess you all remember those painful images from the Oval Office when Trump and Vance openly joined the autocrats' camp, bullying and humiliating President Zelenskyy in front of cameras? If this, dear colleagues, is not the world we want to submit to – and I certainly don't – then we must be the alternative. We must defend the rules-based international order, basing decisions on facts, treating partners with respect, and we must finally stand on our own feet. This means weapons and funding, but most crucially, it means attracting the brightest minds in science, tech and engineering. And here, dear colleagues, is the perfect match because many in the US also reject this administration's agenda – they too, are desperately looking for an alternative. So let's roll out the red carpet, launch a new blue card for a new era, a fast-track visa for skilled professionals from the US who want to work in Europe and build a future based on ethics, sustainability and fair growth. And to the scientists, engineers and innovators in the US: come to Europe. When autocrats embolden autocrats, democrats stand with democrats.

Madam President, Commissioner, that is quite a poor start – 10 minutes for the whole work programme, no President here, no Kaja Kallas, again. My colleagues were polite, but let's spell it out: this is disrespectful, disrespectful to European citizens and to us, their elected representatives in this House. Now, in foreign and defence policy, you announce plenty of good strategies – we stand with Ukraine, we push for enlargement, a European Defence Union, cyber security, Middle East strategy and, hidden in the fine print, finally a review of our Iran policy. But the main strategy is missing, Commissioner – how do we make Member States understand that they are weak if alone in a world of bullies? That these are joint European strategies and not papers that they can bluntly ignore, like they are ignoring us today, by the way. And one last thing: we cannot fix every Trump mess, but one we must, and we can, is supporting and protecting human rights defenders and free journalists wherever they are under threat, be it in Russia, Venezuela, Iran or in exile in the European Union. USAID has long led the way. Now, we need to step in. These people aren't just activists. They are our biggest allies in the fight against bullies, autocrats and warmongers.

Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, people in the Middle East have endured violence and protracted displacement for decades. There is zero appetite for Iranian terrorism, Russian destabilisation, Chinese exploitation or the chaos that Trump has unleashed in just two weeks, announcing the withdrawal of security from ISIS camps, threatening massive forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, or cutting all funding to human rights defenders in the region. And the European Union? Too often we stood by divided or distracted while people on the ground begged us to step up. But it doesn't have to stay that way and there are clear opportunities of what we can do. Let's use the EU‑Israel Association Council to urge Israel to uphold the ceasefire. Let's strongly support UNRWA and its humanitarian work and the United Nations in the region as a whole. Let's engage with Lebanon's new leadership. Let's support a green growth strategy for the Middle East in coordination with the Gulf states. Let's step up our support to local civil society and all those that promote human rights, freedom and democracy in the region. And this time, dear colleagues, let's get it right in Syria. The country is in transition with a blatant power vacuum. Iran and Russia are ready to step back in. Yet, the people that I met on the ground are fighting for an inclusive, for a peaceful future. For years, dictators in the region crushed calls for democracy, warning: do you want to end up like Syria? Let's rewrite that narrative and let's show what the European foreign policy supporting local partners and stepping up to regional bullies can achieve: turning the region from our biggest worry to our strongest partner.

Mr President, even loving your parents is a crime under the brutal rule of the Iranian regime. Nima was three years old when his mother, Sakharov laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh, was thrown into prison. Her crime? Defending women's rights. Nima grew up visiting her through glass barriers. His father, Reza, held the family together while the regime tried everything to tear it apart. And now they have come for Reza to punish Nasrin for not wearing hijab. Nima, now 17, wanted to see his father in prison. But in Iran even that is a battle. When he protested the sudden cancellation of an in-person visit, they beat him up, smashed his head against the stairwell, ripped out his earring, left him handcuffed and bleeding. Nasrin screamed until she lost her voice. For years, Nasrin and Reza have tried to shield their children from the horrors of the regime, but in that moment it all collapsed. Yet Nasrin's message is clear: she will not surrender. She will keep fighting for a future beyond this darkness. And we will stand with her. We will stand with Nima, with Reza, with the countless families shattered by this regime. Until the mullahs open the doors of Evin. Until no child goes up into the shadows of prison walls anymore. (The speaker concluded in a non-official language.)

Mr President, 'Bring out the dead dogs'. That's how prison guards ordered inmates to carry out the bodies of those who died overnight in Sednaya Prison in Syria. What happened to those bodies? Nobody knows. For decades, the Assad regime has used forced disappearances as a tool of repression. More than 100 000 people have disappeared under his rule. Over 100 000 remain missing today. Now, for the first time in decades, there is a real chance to uncover the truth. Syrian experts are already on the ground, documenting crimes, exhuming mass graves, protecting evidence. But they need our support, financially and politically, to fund Syrian civil society working for truth, justice and reconciliation, to press Syria's new rulers to make transitional justice a priority, to strengthen the UN mechanism on missing people, to ensure independent investigations. Because this is the only way to hold perpetrators accountable, to help families find out what happened to their loved ones, and to support Syrians rebuilding a country that heals its wounds and will be a free country for everyone.