It has been six weeks since Hamas’ coordinated terrorist attacks against the Israeli state. Since then, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s indiscriminate assault on anyone standing in between its government and full, total subjugation of what is left of Palestinian territory.
If you’ve been following this website’s coverage of this genocide, you are probably aware by now that I fully support the cause of Palestinian liberation, and that I am completely opposed to the European Union’s approach towards the unfolding crisis.
I’ve explained my reasoning, which is based on a historical understanding of how Palestinians have faced a never-ending onslaught from Israel’s brutal regime for the past 75 years, in multiple pieces I’ve published since the beginning of this month. You can read those articles here, here, and here.
Six weeks since Hamas’ attacks, the European Union’s betrayal of Palestinians in a grand game of geopolitical chess has never been clearer. It is evident that the European Union’s major legislative bodies – the EU Council, the European Parliament, and the European Commission – have been bending over backwards to ensure that their support for Israel does not waver.
Don’t take my word for it – have a look at these summaries and read their press releases to see for yourself what I’m talking about. I also just published a more extensive timeline of what each of these legislative bodies have said and done with all relevant links included.
After analysing every single press release and public statement made by the EU’s figureheads since the start of yet another Nakba, I am left with no other understanding of the cold political calculation that was made on this issue except for this one: the EU’s wholehearted endorsement of mass murder was a means to the end of avoiding the alienation of its only remaining superpower ally, the United States.
The US has been furnishing the Israeli war machine with billions of dollars in military equipment for years on end and will certainly not give up their goal to secure their interests in the Middle East now that such an opportunity has presented itself.
Of course, those same EU figureheads would pretend to be horrified upon hearing anyone describing their actions as an endorsement of mass murder. When she was doorstepped by a handful of pro-Palestinian students at a local post-secondary school for shaking hands with Israeli war criminals, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and her team sent out a pitiful statement claiming that they’ve always drawn a distinction between Hamas and Palestinian citizens.
My immediate and overwhelmingly angry response to such a statement can only be the following: you, dear Metsola, a Maltese politician who previously served as a lightning rod for the hopes of the future of your home country due to your valiant approach to other issues like press freedom and corruption, betray Palestine with every falsehood you utter.
The European Union has always been careful to state that it supports Israel’s right to defend itself as long as Israel is compliant with international laws, pulling out all the stops to make sure it always mentions Hamas’ inexcusable terror to justify its actions. It has also very carefully attempted to argue that, in the words of Metsola herself, “taking a stance against terror and making all efforts to alleviate Gaza’s humanitarian crisis are not mutually exclusive”. This is profoundly disingenuous and amounts to the kind of cheap cop-out I would except from a defence lawyer in a Maltese court.
First of all, the fact that Israel has systematically dismantled Palestinian sovereignty for the past 75 years has not been mentioned once since October 7. Secondly, just because the European Union keeps stating that it supports Israel’s right to defend itself as long as it complies with international laws doesn’t mean that Israel will suddenly stop committing war crimes. It doesn’t mean it will stop blowing up hospitals and murdering entire families. It doesn’t mean that their clearly stated intent to wipe out all Palestinians will suddenly disappear into thin air.
In lesser words, just because the European Union makes a distinction between Hamas and Palestinians, doesn’t mean that same distinction is being made by Israel.
In fact, the complete opposite has happened: the European Union’s endorsement of Israel’s never-ending genocide has only served to embolden the Israeli government into refusing all calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and to press ahead until Palestine simply no longer is.
The European Commission is currently knee-deep in this inherently contradictory approach of endorsing genocide on the one hand and providing humanitarian aid for the victims of that same genocide on the other. It has quadrupled its humanitarian aid to Gaza to €100 million, and is regularly sending out urgent planeloads of critical medical supplies to Gaza.
To anyone who is bearing witness to the wanton destruction that is being perpetrated by the Israeli state, this approach should be described as no more efficient than carrying water in a sieve. While it is obviously good that resources are being mobilised to get to those who need them the most, what the EU aims to achieve by this beyond puerile public relations control is beyond me.
What is the point of the EU’s efforts to get these supplies across if it is going to continue allowing Israel to relentlessly bomb the daylights out of Palestine? What is the point of supplying hospitals with desperately needed equipment if those hospitals are going to be bombed into oblivion a few hours later? What is the point of spending years giving donations to Palestine only to then allow its most immediate and obvious problem – the relentless encroachment of the Israeli state – to fester and spread uncontrollably?
This is not the European Union which represents me. This is not the European Union that champions human rights without fear or fervour, even if it comes at a high diplomatic cost.
This is a European Union which is run by cold-blooded career politicians who cannot see outside of the Brussels bubble and who fail to understand the implications of their actions beyond how it affects their standing within the political sphere.
You betrayed Palestine. You betrayed Palestinians’ right to self-determination. You betrayed millions of displaced people across the world who are watching in horror as the Western world sanctions yet another wipe out, and you have left those people wondering whether they could be next.
I sincerely hope that history fails to remember you kindly.
