I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
This
outcome adds to a growing list of union-led actions across Europe in
solidarity with Palestine and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Ana
Vracar reports.
Dockworkers in Genoa, Italy, protesting forced complicity of Italian ports in Gaza genocide, June 2025. (Unione Sindacale di Base via Peoples Dispatch)
Italian port workers secured a significant win
last week in their ongoing resistance to militarization and arms
transfers, as shipping operators decided they would not unload military
cargo destined for Israel from the vessel COSCO ShippingPisces — returning the containers to their point of origin instead.
“We
were informed today that the three containers carrying military
equipment, destined for La Spezia and transported aboard the COSCO Pisces, will not be unloaded in either Genoa or La Spezia,” the union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) said on July 29. “This decision marks a tangible result of union action and the pressure exerted by USB.”
Costco Pisces in the Dutch port of Rotterdam in 2019. (kees torn/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
This outcome adds to a growing list of union-led actions
across Europe in solidarity with Palestine and against the ongoing
genocide in Gaza, where at least 60,000 people have been killed by the
Israeli occupation.
“From Greece to
Liguria, as previously demonstrated with the support of French
dockworkers, the network of dockworkers across Europe and the
Mediterranean has shown that stopping war logistics is possible,
legitimate, and necessary,” Unione Sindacale di Base wrote.
Following
the announcement, a planned Aug. 5 strike was called off. However,
Genoa dockworkers have pledged to continue mobilizing against the arms
trade. They have also announced plans for an international assembly on
Sept. 26–27, which aims to lay the groundwork for a sector-wide strike.
“We
are not alone: our struggle unites Marseille, Piraeus, Hamburg,
Tangier,” trade unionists declared earlier in July. “If the war comes
through the ports, the response must come from the ports.”
Unione Sindacale di Base logistical workers continue to expand their campaign on
the principle that strikes are a legitimate tool in the fight against
war, militarization and forced worker involvement in arms trafficking.
“Law
146/1990 speaks clearly: war operations are not essential services, and
a strike is legitimate if it serves to defend collective security and
constitutional order,” the union noted. “Stopping arms is not just a political choice, it is a right.”
Locally, from Genoa to Brescia,
workers’ actions are disrupting the chains that fuel massacres and
armed conflict, USB emphasized. Their mobilization against the arms
trade, including strikes, is backed by a growing international
solidarity bloc.
“Dockworkers
in Europe, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere will not become accomplices
of the murderous state of Israel and its allies – the USA, NATO and the
EU,” the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) wrote in
a statement of support to dockworkers in Italy. “They will not allow
ports and infrastructure to become instruments of war for the slaughter
of people by the imperialists.”
Western leaders offering recognition of Palestine instead of consequences as Gaza is obliterated is symbolism, not sovereignty
Protesters rally outside the White House against Israeli bombing of Gaza on 18 March 2025 in Washington (AFP)
Recognising the State of Palestine may seem, at first glance, like a moral turning point - a sign of western conscience reawakened amid the devastation of Gaza.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer soon followed, pledging conditional recognition. His foreign secretary, David Lammy, spoke of Britain’s "special burden of responsibility" - a nod to the Balfour Declaration, which enabled Zionist colonisation of Palestine under British protection.
But peel back the optics, and this gesture is exposed for what it is:
a facade, a diplomatic performance masking business as usual.
What’s being offered isn’t statehood. It’s a demilitarised,
non-contiguous pseudo-entity with no control over borders, airspace,
resources, or movement. It is a ghost administration under Israeli
command, tasked with managing a shattered, occupied population. Less
than the Oslo Accords and more like a glorified municipality dressed up as liberation.
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And yet,
Western leaders present it as bold, visionary. Why? Because this isn’t
about Palestinian rights - it’s about political cover.
Absurd contradiction
France, under President Emmanuel Macron, sees the Palestinian cause
as a diplomatic bridge back into the Arab and Muslim worlds, after its decline across Africa.
Macron postures as a new Charles de Gaulle, despite France’s legacy of aiding Israel’s nuclear ambitions.
Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen have exposed the cracks in the Arab facade
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is leveraging the recognition initiative to justify normalisation with Israel. It offers the illusion of progress while pulling Arab and Muslim countries deeper into the Abraham Accords.
It is not a commitment, but a tactic. He’s offered it conditionally -
as leverage to coax Israel back to the "peace process". If Israel
cooperates, recognition is shelved. Palestinian statehood becomes a
bargaining chip to be played - not a right to be affirmed.
It’s an absurd contradiction: if Starmer truly supported a two-state
solution, recognising the second state would be the first logical step.
But in the West, even symbolic gestures towards Palestine must pass
through Tel Aviv.
And yet, even these hollow gestures have rattled Israel’s far-right coalition.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz scoffed that a Palestinian state should be built in Paris or London. US President Donald Trump threatened Canada with trade retaliation for considering recognition.
But that fury shouldn’t distract from the deeper truth: this
initiative is a mirage, a tranquiliser for international conscience.
These are not rogue extremists - they are ministers of state, shaping
official policy. And the West watches in silence, offering
"recognition" instead of consequences.
Empty diplomacy
In the occupied West Bank, settler violence intensifies and military raids escalate. Between 1993 and 2023, the settler population grew from 250,000 to over 700,000 - despite the Oslo Accords’ promise to freeze expansion.
A state that exists only on paper, that must be approved by its
occupier, is not a state. It’s a lie and recognition without action is
not diplomacy - it’s complicity
Checkpoint by checkpoint, hilltop by hilltop, the land for a viable Palestinian state has been erased.
This is not a policy failure - it is policy.
It began in Madrid in 1991, and was formalised in Oslo in 1993. That
so-called "peace process" replaced international law with endless
negotiations, and justice with delay.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation, under pressure, recognised
Israel and relinquished claim to 78 percent of historic Palestine,
agreeing to negotiate over the remaining 22 percent - the West Bank,
Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.
In return, they were promised a state. But the core issues -
refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders - were deferred indefinitely
as "final status" matters. And in the meantime, Israel deepened its control.
Settlements multiplied.
The apartheid wall was built. The West Bank was carved into a patchwork
of isolated cantons. Gaza was blockaded, then bombed. The Palestinian
Authority, born out of Oslo, became a subcontractor for Israeli security - tasked with suppressing dissent and policing its own people.
Khadija Sobh, 18, gives water to her seven-month-old
daughter Janin Sobh in their tent in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza
City on 3 August 2025 (AFP)
Instead of liberation, Palestinians got lockdown.
Instead of sovereignty, they got surveillance.
This wasn’t a peace process - it was pacification. And every time the
Palestinian struggle gains momentum - whether during the First
Intifada, the Second, or now with worldwide outrage over Gaza - the
same script returns: revive talk of the "two-state solution".
Not to realise it, but to bury the movement beneath another round of
empty diplomacy. It’s a strategy of containment disguised as concern.
That’s what we’re witnessing now.
A virtual state
Gaza faces a manufactured famine,
yet instead of halting the siege or sanctioning the siege-masters, the
West retreats into the fantasy of a "virtual state". Words replace
pressure. Gestures replace justice.
France, Britain, and Germany continue to supply weapons to Israel.
Political support remains ironclad - defended under the banner of
Israel’s "right to exist", even as Palestinians’ right to live is
extinguished.
Instead of recognising 'Palestine', countries should withdraw recognition of Israel
Nothing fundamental has changed. Only the rhetoric.
The flow of arms continues.
The flow of funds continues.
The flow of lies continues.
If the West truly believed in Palestinian statehood, it would start
by ending the military, financial and diplomatic support that fuels
apartheid and occupation.
Recognition without consequences is not a step forward - it’s a step around the truth.
We’ve seen this game before. An endless "process" that leads nowhere -
by design. Even now, in Gaza, negotiations are cover. A ceasefire was within reach last January. Israel shattered
it in March. No consequences. Just a return to "talks", while ethnic
cleansing continues and officials speak of a "Jewish Gaza".
Macron and Starmer talk of a Palestinian state while funding its
erasure. They offer "recognition" that means nothing - except delay.
What they propose isn’t sovereignty - it’s symbolism, a convenient
fiction to pacify public outrage while cementing occupation.
But a state that exists only on paper, that must be approved by its
occupier, is not a state. It’s a lie and recognition without action is
not diplomacy - it’s complicity.
If the West won’t stop the genocide - if it won’t cut the weapons,
halt the funding, or impose a single cost on Israeli war crimes - then
its declarations are worse than meaningless. They are part of the
killing machine.
So, for those pushing this fiction, let’s ask a simple question: Where exactly will this Palestinian state hold sway?
In Gaza, reduced to ashes? In the West Bank, carved up by walls and
settlements? In Jerusalem, annexed and ethnically cleansed? In Jordan?
In Sinai? In Saudi Arabia, as Netanyahu had mockingly suggested?
On Mars?
If it’s meant to exist on land occupied in 1967, then sanction the occupier.
If it’s to be built anywhere else, then call it what it is: a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, the crowning of genocide.
Many
Palestinians, as well as many people within the solidarity movement for
Palestine, have little faith in the current state of Palestine, as it
is defined by Palestinian Authority (PA).
The geographical space
of this state of Palestine is not entirely clear, given the fact it is
bisected by the partition offered by the Oslo Accord: to area A (which
allegedly it controls), area B, (which it co-rules with Israel) and area
C (ruled directly by Israel and constitutes 60% of the West Bank).
Hence
geographically recognising such a state, is tantamount to recognising a
disempowered political entity stretching over less than 20 percent of
the West Bank (as its role in area B is almost insignificant).
No
wonder, civil societies in the world have an issue with their
governments’ position on Palestine, even if they decide to recognise
Palestine; deeming that the Palestine the governments will recognise is
the current state of Palestine.
It should be noted that the PA
demands recognition of a Palestinian state that stretches over the whole
of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; a demand that is supported by
those governments that had already promised to recognise the Palestinian
state with Jerusalem as its capital.
From this perspective, the
recognition of Palestine is of a state that is not there yet, and its
foundation depends on Israel’s position, the international reaction to
it and the validity of the two states solution.
Most
of the political parties in Israel today are loyal to the
constitutional nationality law of 2018 that stipulates clearly that
there can be only one nation, the Jewish nation, and for that reason
only one nation state, between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean.
In
many ways this was the last nail driven into the coffin of the two
states solution; a solution that has already been dead for a while.
The
presence of more than 800,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the
total destruction of Gaza (with a real possibility of annexation of part
of it to Israel) and the political trends in Israel, leave very little
hope for such a solution to be seriously discussed by Israel.
Hence,
those who believe that recognising Palestine will bring nearer the two
states solution are unfortunately out of touch with the reality on the
ground.
And it does seem that for most of the governments which
have already taken this move, the recognition is part of their
unconditional support for the two states’ solution.
History,
however, might be kinder to them. It could record them not as supporters
of the two states solution necessarily but as standing against the
current Israeli wish to expunge Palestine as a nation, a homeland and as
a people.
Therefore, the timing here is crucial. Since November 2022, Israel has been ruled by a very extreme rightwing government.
Its election reflected the fundamental changes that Israeli Jewish society has undergone in the 21st century.
The move to the right of the whole society meant that a new ideological and political elite are now ruling Israel.
This
new elite is messianic, some parts of it prefer Israel to be a
theocracy, and all its members share deep racism towards the Arabs in
general and the Palestinians in particular.
If there were any
signs, and there hardly were any, of a significant alternative force
challenging this new Israeli orientation, they disappeared after 7
October 2023.
The vast majority of Israeli Jews condone the
genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank, and
the increased discrimination against the Palestinian minority inside
Israel.
Fresh approach
The
recognition of Palestine as a state is still seen by European
governments as a positive contribution to future diplomacy of peace.
However,
the inevitable dynamics inside Israel, and more importantly the
continued genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the ethnic cleansing
operations in the West Bank, call upon Europe to play a different role,
and therefore in return recognise Palestine within a fresh and new
approach to the Israel/Palestine question.
The fresh approach requires the European political elite to accept the historical context of the developments on the ground.
By
this I mean to acknowledge that Zionism from the outset was a European
project, born out of Europe’s inability to deal with its own
antisemitism and opting instead for imposing a European Jewish state on
the Arab world and the Palestinians.
Israelis deem themselves as
part of Europe and so does Europe. Given that the current Israel openly
declares a war of destruction and elimination against the Palestinian
people, it enjoys so far Europe’s indifference at best and its
complicity at worst.
This destructive Israeli campaign will have
far reaching implications for European society itself as well as for
Europe’s relationship with the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Recognising
Palestine in this context, is first and foremost acknowledging Europe’s
complicity in the inception of the Zionist project and its disastrous
impact on the Palestinians.
Secondly, it has to be read as a
commitment to defend the Palestinians, rather than involved in a
diplomacy meant to “solve the conflict”.
This
is a huge challenge to the political elites of Europe, which at best
are not keen to confront Israel or the pro-Israeli lobby, knowing how
easily the allegation of antisemitism and holocaust denial would be
thrown at them.
Therefore, to expect these politicians to commit
to such a moral posture, necessitates a similar moral commitment in
other areas where the political elites face strong lobbies: military
expenditure, fossil energy, neo-capitalism and multinational
corporations.
One cannot be too sanguine about such a prospect,
but one can always hope that one day politicians will show moral courage
and not regard politics as a profession but rather as a vocation.
To
sum up, even those among us who are not enthusiastic supporters of the
Palestine Authority campaign to elicit recognition of Palestine as a
state, should differentiate between the current Palestinian state (a
Bantustan) and Palestine the country (which stretches from the river to
the sea).
Until now the decision of how much the state will be part of the country was exclusively entrusted in the hands of the Israelis.
It
is time for the Palestinians, the indigenous people of the country, and
victims of more than a century of colonialism, to lead the way in
determining the future of both Israelis and Palestinians in the land of
Palestine.
Ilan
Pappéis professor of history and director of the European Centre for
Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK. He is the
author of numerous books and articles on Israel and Palestine.
Whenever Israel yields to international pressure and allows aid
trucks into Gaza, it devises other methods to ensure that food is never
delivered. On the same day, July 26, Israel announced airdrops and
“humanitarian corridors” for UN convoys, its forces murdered
53 humans seeking aid in those corridors. Aid distribution points,
rather than feeding the starving population, Israel turns them into
killing zones. Time and again, since December 2023, Palestinians have
been paying with blood for a loaf of bread or a bottle of water.
In less than two months, death by Israeli bullets at the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has reached over 1,054,
averaging about 20 murders daily. Since July 26 when Israel announced
the new “humanitarian (death) corridors,” the murder toll has more than
doubled compared to those killed daily at GHF distribution centers, 325 last week alone. Meanwhile, the tokenistic airdrops by Arab collaborators is nothing short of a disgrace.
The $60 million Donald Trump brags about giving to GHF is blood money
funding the deaths of hungry Palestinians. For the starved, GHF stands
for Gaza Humiliation Front, not a lifeline, but an Israeli
murder-line. Instead of wasting American taxpayer money on GHF death
traps, Trump should consider restoring U.S. funding to UNRWA, the only agency that has offered real hope to Palestinian children for more than 75 years.
Steve Witkoff’s visit
to a GHF center in Gaza, followed by his statement that there is no
starvation, was a textbook case of confirmation bias. His tour did not
show the absence of starvation, but rather his willful blindness not to
see. Witkoff sought out information that would reinforce his
predetermined narrative to whitewash starvation.
To be sure, no one had seriously expected him to witness starvation
at a carefully staged (safe) site, far removed from the people. He
declined an invitation
to visit a hospital in Gaza to see the starved children, and hear
directly from the life-saving medical professionals. Instead, he chose a
photo op and listen to the mercenaries of death at GHF.
The engineered starving in Gaza, supported by the U.S., has always
been a central pillar of Israel’s psychological warfare; a calculated
strategy aimed at expelling the population or driving them into a
survivalist frenzy. Israel, and the U.S. funded GHF, have become the
perfect linchpin of this Israeli designed contraption. Replacing
a well-established UN infrastructure that operated 400 distribution
centers, GHF offered only four aid points. These limited sites made it
easier for Israel to surveil, shoot at the starving, and leave the survivors to fight over the meager crumbs that remained.
GHF role was exposed
by Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. Special Forces officer, West Point
graduate, and recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Choking
back tears, Lt. Col. Aguilar recounted the story of a child who “walked 12 kilometers to reach” one of GHF’s food distribution sites. “He got nothing but scraps, thanked us for it…” and then he was shot dead by the Israeli army. I urge readers to listen to the powerful three minutes testimony from a decorated U.S. military officer.
Still, the Israeli-managed “free” Western media has too often acted
as Israel’s public relations arm. It downplays Israel’s horrific crimes
and markets Israeli falsehood, such as the baseless claim that the
resistance steals food aid. This fabricated narrative persisted even
after USAID concluded that Israel failed
to provide any evidence supporting that food aid was being diverted. Or
they excuse the lack of food on a faulty distribution system, not the
Israeli blockade. When in fact, other than for Israeli military
hindrance, under UN oversight, there has been no issues delivering food
to all of Gaza. Israel’s objective is simple: deflect responsibility by
blaming the starving for their own starvation.
Even after these lies were debunked, the Trump administration
continued to parrot Israeli disinformation. Notably, however, following
his trip to Scotland, Trump’s tone has noticeably softened,
acknowledging for the first time, the taunting images of starving
babies. Perhaps, a few days outside the Washington bubble of his Israel-first advisors, has offered him a rare glimpse of reality.
Meanwhile, it took one video of an emaciated Zionist captive for Israelis to cry Holocaust.
But not the food blockade against 2.3 million humans (including the
Israeli captive soldiers), nor the images of starving Palestinians murdered at Israel’s humiliating food lines, or babies with hollow eyes, abdominal bloating, and skeletal limbs. These barely get their attention. Instead of showing human empathy, they chose to dismiss the haunting photos of dying infants, maybe because these children were less “chosen.”
Early last June, I wrote on the Israeli scheme to “lie, deny, and distort the truth.” In the article, I detailed
a long list of Israeli lies and how the American media disseminated the
disinformation with little to no effort to verify or challenge. You
see, Israel does not just enjoy political impunity from the U.S.
administration; it also has the freedom to lie with complete immunity
from the American media.
The daunting question remains, how many lies must Israel tell
before the media call them out, just as they do with the American
President, Donald J. Trump—or other nations?
A recent example of how the Israeli-managed “free” media
misrepresents facts is the latest failed ceasefire talks. Listening to
U.S. media, BBC and government mouthpieces, one might conclude that the
Palestinian negotiators rejected a “generous” offer for a ceasefire. In
reality, the talks collapsed because Netanyahu sought only a pause to secure the release of captive Israeli soldiers, refusing to agree to end the war, or the starvation blockade.
No rational party would accept, let alone consider, such a
half-measure. When Palestinians rejected a proposal short of a lasting
ceasefire, Netanyahu cried foul. President Trump, and his envoy Witkoff,
rushed to absolve his intransigence and refusal to accept a permanent
ceasefire, and then blamed the Palestinians.
The reluctance, or perhaps intimidation of the Arab mediators like
Qatar and Egypt to publicly challenge Washington’s pro-Israel stance has
only deepened the media distortions. The mediators’ silence allowed
Netanyahu’s false narratives to dominate international discourse, while
serving as a fig leaf for the blatant submissive American bias.
Nonetheless, the tide could be turning. France and UK’s recent
promise to recognize the state of Palestine, although long overdue,
signals the growing frustration with Netanyahu’s lies and deceit. The
European officials made it clear, they were no longer willing to
tolerate the Israeli farce. The symbolic act, however, would never atone
for Britain’s original sin: the 1917 Balfour Declaration,
which promised European settlers a homeland in Palestine, while failing
to enshrine the rights of the indigenous Palestinians on their land.
Nor does it exonerate France who conspired with Britain in the secret
1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement to carve up the eastern part of the Arab world.
Still, recognition matters. Fourteen
other countries are poised to follow France’s lead next month. The
growing calls demanding Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, is also
telling. These governments have finally realized, what their subjects
had long known, that the absence of peace is not due to Palestinian
rejectionism, but to Netanyahu’s deception and insatiable thirst for the
never-ending wars.
Despite the dominance of Israeli-embedded
journalists and pundits in Western media, the world is finally waking
up to the true face of Israel. Alternative media has, to a great extent,
succeeded in piercing through the wall of Israeli lies, offering an
unfiltered view into the lived horrors of starvation and the genocide. No amount of Israeli propaganda can obscure the images
of skeletal ribs jutting from the bodies of dying children. The sight
of starving infants suckling on their bony fists, indicts the liars more
powerfully than any polished Israeli hasbara could ever hide.
To that end, a recent Gallup poll
shows a clear shift in the U.S., where American support for the Israeli
military action in Gaza has dropped to 32%, and disapproval has soared
to 60%. For a while, Israel was enabled to “fool all the people some of the time,” and it continues to “fool some of the people all the time,” but ultimately, and as the latest poll shows, it “cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Yet babies are starving, the genocide continues and there is no
ceasefire is in sight. This is only possible because Netanyahu and AIPAC continue to wag the dogs of Washington.
Jamal Kanj is the author of Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books. He writes frequently on Arab world issues for various national and international commentaries.
Europe’s silence has allowed the genocide of Palestinians to continue unchecked – undermining all it stands for
Josep Borrell was the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy from 2019 to 2024
If
they survive Donald Trump’s attacks, the international courts will not
deliver their final verdict for several years. But for all those who
have ears to hear and eyes to see, there can be little doubt that the
Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and
starving civilians after systematically destroying all the
infrastructure in the territory. In the meantime, settlers and the
Israeli army are every day guilty of serious, massive and repeated
violations of international law and international humanitarian law in
the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Those who do
not act to stop this genocide and these violations of international
law, even though they have the power to do so, are complicit in them.
This is unfortunately the case with the leaders of the European Union
and those of its member states, who refuse to sanction Israel even
though the EU has a legal obligation to do so.
The
EU has many levers it could pull to exert significant influence on the
Israeli government. The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner and its
main partner in investment and people-to-people exchange. It is also one
of its major arms suppliers. The association agreement
between the EU and Israel, established in 2000 after the Oslo accords,
is the most favourable of all those concluded by the bloc with third
countries. In addition to zero customs duties on its exports of goods
and services and visa-free travel for its citizens, the agreement gives
Israel access to several major European funding and exchange programmes such as Horizon and Erasmus.
However,
article 2 of this agreement makes it conditional on Israel’s respect
for international law and fundamental human rights. Whether or not to
suspend it is therefore not a choice that the EU can make at will. Since
the EU foreign affairs ministers found that Israel was not respecting
these rights, EU leaders now have a legal obligation to suspend the
agreement. Failure to do so would also be a serious violation of the
association agreement with Israel.
However,
despite all my efforts to this end when I was high representative of the
EU, and despite the dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian
situation in Gaza and the increasing violations of international law in
the West Bank in recent months, the EU and most EU governments have so
far failed to use any of the levers available to them to exert pressure
on the Israeli government.
As a result, faced
with the intransigence of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the EU has
for more than a year and a half been unable to assert its commitment to
fundamental human rights, its defence of international law and
multilateralism, or its longstanding position in favour of the two-state
solution. This inaction has already seriously damaged its geopolitical
standing, not only in the Muslim world but across the globe. The stark
contrast between the firm response of the European authorities to
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and their passivity in the face of
the war in Gaza has been widely exploited by Vladimir Putin’s propaganda
against the EU. And with success, as we have seen in particular in the Sahel. This European double standard has also greatly weakened support for Ukraine in many developing countries.
By
persisting in not suspending the association agreement despite its
clear violation by Israel, in not blocking arms deliveries to that
country despite the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in
Gaza, in not banning imports from illegal settlements despite the
decisions of the international court of justice to that effect, by not
sanctioning Israeli ministers and political leaders who make genocidal
statements, by not banning Netanyahu from using European airspace
despite the arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court,
and by not supporting the judges of the court and UN officials
sanctioned by the United States, the EU and its member states are
discrediting themselves in the eyes of the world and undermining the
international law and multilateral order they are supposed to defend.
While under attack from Putin in the east and Trump in the west, the EU
is thus deepening its isolation by cutting itself off from the rest of
the world.
The leaders of the EU and its
member states will probably be called to account in the future for their
complicity in the crimes against humanity committed by Netanyahu’s
government. And, with hindsight, Europeans will undoubtedly judge
harshly their blindness to the genocide that is taking place. However,
it is urgent to limit the damage now. The EU must finally decide to
sanction Israel without further delay. This is the only language that
can bring Israeli leaders to stop committing crimes against humanity.
Josep Borrell was the high representative of
the EU for foreign affairs and security policy from 2019 to 2024. He is
president of the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, CIDOB
Senior
Hamas official Osama Hamdan has released the latest message from the
group, saying “engineered starvation” and genocide is “a crime against
humanity”, while calling for an immediate intervention by the
international community.
“[It] will remain a stigma that haunts all the supporters of the
occupation and those who fail to prevent and stop it,” he said in a
statement released by Hamas’ official Telegram channel.
Hamdan accused the US and other Western countries of “double
standards” due to their difference in attitude towards the Palestinian
prisoners and the Israeli captives.
He said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “bears full
responsibility for the lives of all prisoners held by the resistance due
to his intransigence, arrogance, and evasion of a ceasefire agreement,
while escalating the war of extermination and starvation against our
people”.
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Saturday it will not give up its arms unless an “independent, fully sovereign” Palestinian state is established, Anadolu reports.
The statement came following reports by the Israeli daily Haaretz citing a recording attributed to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff: “Hamas has said that they are prepared to be demilitarized.”
“We are very, very close to a solution to end this war,” Witkoff is also heard saying, according to Haaretz.
“Commenting on reports by some media outlets quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff as saying the movement expressed willingness to disarm, we reiterate that resistance and its weapons are a national and legitimate right as long as the occupation continues — a right recognized by international laws and conventions,” Hamas said in a statement on Telegram.
The group added that such rights “cannot be relinquished except with the full attainment of our national rights, foremost being the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Witkoff met families of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, as hundreds rallied to demand a ceasefire deal that would secure their release from the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
Witkoff’s visit, his third to Hostage Square since the war began, came shortly after Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad released footage showing two emaciated Israeli captives, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, prompting renewed outrage.
On Friday, Witkoff visited an aid center in southern Gaza operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Diplomatic merchandise: Exploiting the issue of Palestinian recognition
He said the aim was to give US President Donald Trump “a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
The visit comes amid mounting criticism of US-Israeli coordination in Gaza, particularly regarding the group’s distribution model, which Palestinians say serves as a tool for displacement under the guise of humanitarian relief as well as a “death trap” for many Palestinian aid seekers, with over 1,300 killed since May while waiting for relief supplies.
Hamas on Thursday denounced the visit as a “propaganda stunt” aimed at deflecting global outrage over what rights groups and UN officials have described as Israel’s systematic starvation campaign.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, at least 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of hunger-related causes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
