Every EU leader has Palestinian blood on their hands
Brussels elite has enabled the Gaza genocide.
An EU delegation assured Israel’s military of full support as it attacked Gaza. (Twitter)
We have probably all seen headlines describing the Hamas-led operation of 7 October as “Israel’s 9/11.”
To put it mildly, such headlines painted a very incomplete picture.
For one thing, they conveyed the impression that the Hamas-led operation was unprovoked. Decades of oppression against Palestinians and, in particular, the suffocation of Gaza were omitted from the “analysis.”
For another thing, Israel had already treated the 9/11 attacks of 2001 as directly relevant to it.
On 11 September 2001, Benjamin Netanyhau was asked what the attacks on New York and Washington would mean for US-Israel relations.
“It’s very good,” Netanyahu replied before qualifying himself, by saying “well, not very good but it will generate immediate sympathy.”
Israel exploited the 9/11 attacks of 2001 assiduously, positioning itself as an indispensable ally to major Western nations waging the so-called “war on terror.”
The violence to which Israel subjects Palestinians was portrayed as an essential component in a war that was now supposedly global.
Hugging Israel tighter
The agenda pursued by Israel since 2001 also had an impact this side of the Atlantic.
One year earlier - in 2000 - a so-called association agreement between Israel and the European Union came into effect.
Under that accord all dealings with Israel are conditional on respect for human rights.
In practice, the European Union has ignored that condition so that it can hug Israel tighter and tighter.
An important, if little publicized, strengthening of EU-Israel relations took place in the few years after the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Since the 1990s, Israel had been involved in the EU’s lucrative funding programs for scientific research.
Following the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the European Union added “security” to the list of themes which may be funded through its research budget.
Israeli firms and institutions have received handsome amounts from funding labeled “security research,” as well as from funding given other labels.
The weapons makers Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries proved especially adept at making successful applications for EU science grants. Both companies test their products on Palestinians.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the European Union and the United States oversaw coordination between Israel and forces nominally working for the Palestinian Authority. The purpose of the coordination was to make Palestinians police themselves in a way that would benefit Israel.
Hard though it may be to believe today, Britain was once an active and powerful member of the European Union.
As a powerful EU member, Britain was especially keen to make Palestinians obey their occupiers.
In pursuit of that objective, Britain – then headed by the war criminal Tony Blair – paid for an EU police training “mission” in Palestine to be formed during 2005.
The mission is still going today. All of its activities require permission from Israel.
No offense
Much of the EU’s interaction with Israel has been shrouded in secrecy.
There is evidence nonetheless that the EU and Israel have been engaged in a considerable amount of so-called “intelligence sharing.”
After years of preparation, a formal EU-Israel “counter-terrorism dialogue” was established in 2015.
The European Union has refused to divulge which Israeli bodies take part in this “dialogue.”
Through several freedom of information requests, I finally obtained an internal document explaining why the European Union guards such basic details so jealously. The document states in plain terms that the European Union fears Israel would be offended if those details were made available.
It is almost certain that Israeli bodies which oppress Palestinians directly are taking part in this “dialogue.”
So when the European Union says it does not wish to offend Israel, it really means that we must not cause offense to a brutal military occupation.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, would not dare to offend Israel.
On the contrary, she assured Benjamin Netanyahu of her total support this month as Israel unleashed a genocidal bombardment on Gaza.
Ursula von der Leyen does not speak for me and countless other citizens of the European Union. As she was not elected by ordinary voters, she has no democratic mandate to represent EU citizens on any subject.
There has been much commentary about von der Leyen going on a solo run recently by taking a more strident stance in favor of Israel than that adopted by EU governments collectively.
Some of the commentary has been misleading. It implies that the European Union is really a paragon of evenhandness and that Ursula von der Leyen has upset a delicate equilibrium.
Obligation
The reality is that all 27 governments in the European Union have sided with Israel. All 27 governments endorsed a statement on 15 October which reads: “We strongly emphasize Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law.”
The statement must not be viewed in a vacuum.
By the time it was issued, Israel had displayed absolute contempt for humanitarian and international law while exercising its so-called “right to defend itself.”
Israel had killed more children in Gaza over the space of one week than Russia had killed in Ukraine over the space of 18 months.
The European Union was, therefore, telling Israel it had a right to defend itself in a context where Israel was exercising that so-called “right” by slaughtering children.
The reference to “humanitarian and international law” was, therefore, hollow and hypocritical.
And besides, Israel does not have a right to defend itself.
Occupiers do not have rights.
They have obligations.
One of those obligations is to pack their bags and get the hell out.
International law makes it clear that a military occupation must be temporary.
Fifty-six years after it invaded the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has still not fulfilled its responsibility to end the occupation.
Instead, it is taking the occupation to new extremes of violence.
To its shame, the European Union has given its blessing to that violence by presenting it as an act of self-defense.
Every leader of every government in the European Union has the blood of Palestinian children on his or her hands.