Twenty months into Israel’s daily devastation of Gaza, its US-backed “aid relief” scheme has left 230 people dead or injured in a single day. This single incident is just the latest in the truly apocalyptic destruction wrought on every aspect of life in Gaza. More than 90 percent of Gaza’s population has already been displaced. In the past three months alone, over 600,000 people have been displaced again, some ten times or more.

In these conditions, it is understandable that some should welcome the sight of seventeen European Union member states voting in favor of reviewing the EU-Israel Association Agreement. It is only human to grasp for anything that might acknowledge Palestinians have human rights and that those rights should be treated equally under international law.

It is possible that this vote will mark the long overdue turning of the tide. However, it is unfortunately much more likely that this debate over the suspension of the agreement is a sham and that it will not lead to any significant new moves.