Israel’s is currently executing a fully-fledged plan of genocide against the Palestinian people by a multi-pronged and strategic process that involves, the killing of as much Palestinians in Gaza as possible, the ultimate displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza and the rapid colonisation of the West Bank.
At The Maltese Herald, we consistently documented the war in Gaza meticulously and consistently. The reporting and the documentation shows that Israel started a war with genocidal intent that escalated systematically with the rapid increase of the murder of journalists, humanitarian aid-workers, civilians and children. Simultaneously Israel is conducting an active displacement and ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in the West Bank and this has escalated throughout the war in Gaza. The Israeli government is making its intent to ethnically-cleanse Palestinians in the West Bank publicly and clear.
The war was started by Hamas, and it was started with genocidal intent. This is a fact that has been recorded publicly. Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis with genocidal intent on October 7th and committed widespread rape and torture in Israel in one of the most horrifying attacks that has ever been recorded by the aggressor. Hamas knew that Israel would retaliate excessively, so they built tunnels for themselves in order to be able to withstand the incoming Israeli bombing while allowing their people to get martyred for their cause.
Following the October 7th attacks, Israel received wide international support. Eradicating Hamas from the Palestinian political sphere could have been a just cause that freed Palestinians from their local oppressor but Israel used this cause merely as an excuse for genocide. Hamas have not been destroyed and are still able to operate militarily, although their support with the population of Gaza has also evaporated.
We have now moved on from Hamas as being a concern or a threat to Israel. Israel has clearly secured its security and even Iran and the Houthis have stopped firing missiles at its capital city, Tel Aviv. Israel is now, very clearly, the only culprit to blame for the genocide on Palestinians as it clearly wages a war in Gaza and even in Syria that can only be described as aggressive and belligerent. That Hamas is still holding up to 24 Israeli hostages can not be a justification for the killing of a whole people and destroying their aspirations for a State. Israel has neither a justification for its illegal invasion of Syria
Cutting off Israel’s weapons purchases would be the first step to help stop this genocide, and this step was already being taken gradually by the Biden Administration: it was reversed by the Tump Administration. Imposing sanctions would be the next step, and this was also reversed by the Trump administration. The EU should also step up and impose sanctions on Israel as a form of pressure, but many of those criticising the EU to impose sanctions on Israel, also don’t understand that the EU doesn’t usually exercise these powers. I fully agree that the EU should use its global power to uphold and promote human rights, but criticism about the EU and its officials for being too weak on Israel is being made on the wrong premises.
The EU is not just weak on Israel. Although Israel does have strong lobbies in Berlin, Paris and Brussels, Israel is not an exception as to how the EU treats belligerent and genocidal states. The EU has official relationships with Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates which is sponsoring a genocide in Sudan, and relationships with China which actively runs concentration camps for Uyghur Muslims. Just to name a few. Those accusing the European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola, of inconsistency for condemning Russia while refusing to condemn Israel are wrong to a very serious degree.
The EU is not condemning Russia and helping Ukraine just out of principle or for the sake of international rule-of-law: it is doing so because it is in its own existential and security interest. Europe has a direct stake and interest in seeing Ukraine win the war. To put it more simply, Ukraine, for Europe is a local matter. Palestine is a foreign policy matter.
I fully agree that the EU should sanction Israel and step up its condemnations against it, but critics have to acknowledge that if the EU is going to do so, it is going to “play foreign politics” which as a prerequisite, need a navy and air superiority with global reach to achieve their full effect and intent. This is also why socialists like Alex Agius Saliba who are simultaneously insisting that Europe should “choose butter instead of guns”, while demanding a strong stance against Israel are being totally naïve or opportunistic. A condemnation can go as far as an Israeli drone bombing a humanitarian vessel in your waters. You can’t take a position against ReArm Europe and then demand the EU to be an international bastion of human rights and legal order.
Criticism that the Israeli lobby has captured EU and European politics is on the other hand legitimate. France, Germany and the UK have all refused to acknowledge the arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu. Refusing to acknowledge these warrants is weakening the ICC’s mandate. This shouldn’t even be a political matter. The arrest warrants have to be executed to bring justice for the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed, even if Israel accepts the two-state solution that will be proposed at the United Nations conference in the coming days.
Israel is making active efforts to prevent the proposed two-State solution that is currently being proposed. As I’m currently writing, Israel is bombing and killing civilians in Gaza. It has just refused entry of a Saudi delegation to the West Bank, and it is making active plans to displace the Palestinians from the West Bank and colonise it with Jewish settlers. Israel is also displacing its own Arabs in Israel, currently, displacing Bedouin communities in the south.
There is doubt and skepticism as to how Europe will be able to enforce its recognition of the State of Palestine while Israel actively dismantles the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and displaces Palestinians. Sanctions seem to be the inevitable course of future events, but Europe’s inability to stop a genocide in the Mediterranean Sea should also serve as a warning sign of Europe’s lack of effective and material power in the Mediterranean – this should change.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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