THE EU-ROPEAN POLICY TOWARDS ISRAEL'S WAR ON GAZA: ACTOR-CENTRED INSTITUTIONALIST EXPLANATION

Öz

There has not been a significant change on the EU’s stance on the main issues regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of the formulation of its single foreign policy position on this issue in the 1970s. However, Israel’s war on Gaza that started on October 7th, 2023 compelled some EU states to recognise the Palestinian state. The primary goal of this study is to explore EU’s policies towards Israel’s war on Gaza from the angle of actor-centred institutionalism. This approach, which was designed by Renate Mayntz and Fritz Scharpf, is an analytical tool employed to investigate political facts and processes. According to this approach, institutions are viewed as rules (laws, norms), regularities (behavioural routines, power relations, distributions of power and resources), social entities (formal corporate actors and organisations) and (formal or informal loose) networks. Non-written rules, legal regulations and regularities form real (formal or informal) social structures and create the framework for the relationships among the actors by the distribution of official competences, financial or power resources. Thus, these institutions determine their definitions of the actors’ situations, on which their choices of action are based. The primary argument of this article is that the current actor constellation in the EU prevents it from following a common stance towards the Gaza war. There are two opposing camps concerning EU’s policy towards Israel’s war on Gaza. Spain, Ireland, Slovenia are pro-Palestine whereas Germany, Austria and some eastern European states such as Hungary and the Czech Republic are supportive of Israel. Another contention of this article is that the disunity within the EU also stems from the EU’s institutional plurality and diversity. In other words, the divide is both within and between the EU institutions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• institutionalism
• Israel
• EU
• Gaza
• Palestine

İSRAİL'İN GAZZE SAVAŞIYLA İLGİLİ POLİTİKASI: AKTÖR MERKEZLİ KURUMSAL AÇIKLAMA

Öz

AB’nin İsrail-Filistin çatışması konusundaki temel meseleler üzerindeki tutumunda, 1970’lerde bu konuda tek bir dış politika pozisyonu oluşturmaya başladığından bu yana önemli bir değişiklik olmamıştır. Ancak, 7 Ekim 2023’te başlayan İsrail’in Gazze’ye karşı savaşı, bazı AB ülkelerini Filistin devletini tanımaya zorlamıştır. Bu çalışmanın birincil hedefi AB’nin İsrail’in Gazze Savaşı’na karşı olan politikalarını aktör odaklı kurumsalcılık açısından incelemektir. Renate Mayntz ve Fritz Scharpf tarafından geliştirilen aktör-merkezli kurumsalcılık, siyasi olguları ve süreçleri analiz etmek için kullanılan bir analitik araçtır. Kurumsalcılıkta, kurumlar, kurallar (yasalar, normlar), düzenlilikler (davranış rutinleri, güç ilişkileri, güç ve kaynakların dağılımı), sosyal varlıklar (resmi kurumsal aktörler ve örgütler) ve (resmi veya gayriresmi gevşek) ağlar olarak kabul edilir. Yazılı olmayan kurallar, yasal düzenlemeler ve düzenlilikler, gerçek (resmi veya gayriresmi) sosyal yapılar yaratır ve aktörler arasındaki ilişkilerin çerçevesini, yetkinliklerin, finansal veya güç kaynaklarının tahsisiyle belirler. Sonuç olarak, bu kurumlar, aktörlerin eylem tercihlerini temel aldıkları durumların tanımlarını belirler. Yasal hükümler, anayasalar, kararnameler, yönetmelikler, yasalar ve tüzükler, farklı kurumsal aktörlerin (otoriteler, örgütler) güç ve kaynak dağılımını tanımlar. Bu kurumsal aktörler, ilgili ülkelerdeki yasal gereksinimlere uygun olarak kurumsal düzenlemelerle oluşturulur ve onlara görevler ve yetkinlikler atanır. Makalenin birinci argümanı, AB’deki hali hazırdaki aktör kümeleşmesinin Gazze Savaşı’na karşı ortak bir tutum izlemeyi engellediğidir. AB’nin İsrail’in Gazze Savaşı’na karşı izlediği politikayla ilgili birbirine zıt iki kamp yer almaktadır. İspanya, İrlanda ve Slovenya Filistin taraftarıyken Almanya, Avusturya ve Macaristan ve Çek Cumhuriyeti gibi bazı doğu Avrupa ülkeleri İsrail’i desteklemektedir. Makalenin başka bir iddiası AB içindeki bölünmüşlüğün AB’nin kurumsal çoğulculuğundan ve çeşitliliğinden de kaynaklanmış olduğudur. Bölünme hem kurumların içinde hem de kurumların arasındadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• kurumsalcılık
• İsrail
• AB
• Gazze
• Filistin

Kaynakça

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