In the same week that we marked two year years since the beginning of the Gaza genocide, a ceasefire was also announced, though it is difficult to imagine that the period will be remembered as a time of celebration. Our world was changed by the months of horrific killing, and the dividing lines were drawn. While the initial events have mostly been memory-holed, this was in fact clear almost from the start.
Already at the start of Israel’s war, in October 2023, concern in Brussels over their endorsement of actions “that will swiftly be labelled as war crimes,” was being reported. With one EU diplomat being quoted as saying: “We may be about to see massive ethnic cleansing.”
Another event that’s been memory-holed is how Western officials were pushing for Egypt to allow Israel to implement its plan to force the Palestinians of Gaza into the Sinai; only to be refused as “they shared widespread concerns that once Israel has forced the Palestinians out of Gaza, it will never let them back.”
Genocide is always wrong?
Now I’m certainly not saying that European liberals have never supported anything immoral before this, their special treatment of Israel despite its brazen violations of international law being but one example. But one core principle they’ve always pledged to maintain consensus on after the fall of Nazi Germany is that genocide is always wrong. It’s the basic moral lesson Europeans are all taught from childhood when they learn about WWII, to the extent that it’s become a sort of secular religion replacing traditional Bible stories.
To persuade Europeans to support Israel while it openly attempts to annihilate an entire people was always going to create some serious cognitive dissonance. If Israel could get this done quickly and relatively quietly (I’m detaching myself from morality here), these events probably would have passed without provoking an internal crisis. But it’s been two years; a combination of steadfast Palestinian resistance and international outrage hindering Israel’s starvation tactics left it still unable to achieve its strategic goal of permanently removing the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
It’s been incredibly depressing to witness just how much Israel has been able to get away with and still avoid hitting outright pariah status. I honestly wouldn’t have predicted that this slaughter would have been permitted to continue anywhere near this long, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that it was only halted the day that the US government decided it must end.
But it does feel like we’ve reached a turning point as of late. The UN report last month concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza was much harder to dismiss than any previous organisation concluding the same thing.
Support for the UN has been a pillar of Western liberalism since its founding, and although liberals do feel they can disagree with it sometimes, it is very difficult indeed to convince them that it is an antisemitic organisation propagating blood libels. Saying that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians is now a mainstream opinion in the West.
Global solidarity
We’ve seen a significant uptick in Palestine solidarity actions across Europe. In the UK, the government has arrested hundreds of people who have been protesting against the proscription of Palestine Action. This has led to absurd scenes of the police complaining that they can’t protect the public from actual terrorism because counter-terrorism officers are too busy arresting people for holding up signs.
The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner Michael O'Flaherty also recently expressed his concerns to the Home Secretary over the arrests, and explained that, “domestic legislation designed to counter ‘terrorism’ or ‘violent extremism’ must not impose any limitations on fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly”.
This attempt to suppress Palestine solidarity efforts have actually given the movement a shot in the arm, and finding out if the British legal system even has the capacity to process and convict these thousands of non-violent ‘terrorists’ is a farce waiting to unfold.
Another farcical event was the aftermath of the Vuelta bicycle race in Spain. Spanish police apparently got so frustrated at their inability to prevent pro-Palestinian demonstrators from disrupting the Israeli team, that they vented their rage by beating up British tourists who clearly had nothing to do with the protest and were just passing by.
The Spanish Prime Minister went on to express his “deep admiration” for everyone who’d protested, also commenting that “sports organisations need to ask themselves whether it’s ethical for Israel to keep taking part in international competitions.” It’s very rare to see a European head of government endorse direct action like this. This has since been followed by even more militant actions in Italy, where unions have called a general strike in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the far-right government has struggled to cope with several days of demonstrations with participants numbering in the millions.
Another sign of Israel’s increased isolation is that next month the European Broadcast Union will be voting on whether to ban Israel from Eurovision, with Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ireland and Iceland all issuing statements saying if Israel is allowed to enter they’ll consider boycotting it. It’s also been reported that UEFA is considering banning Israeli teams from European football, with most members currently being in favour of a ban.
Both of these organisations decided to ban Russia from participating after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, so they can’t evade the issue by claiming to be neutral on geopolitics. Even if Israel ends up avoiding a ban from these competitions, it’s still an astounding collapse in its diplomatic standing that such a move is being seriously considered.
It shouldn’t have taken this long, of course, but we reached a point in the genocide where European government’s complicity has caused domestic unrest that could easily snowball into something more serious in the future. This is ironic given it is likely to have served as the principle motivation for these states to repress solidarity efforts over the past 24 months.
Daniel Lindley is a writer and trade union activist in the UK.
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