EU leaders lied when they called on Israel to stop the Gaza genocide

A new trend has recently emerged among European leaders in which they began to loudly condemn the Israeli crimes and livestream genocide have been going on against civilians in the Gaza Strip for 600 days. This trend gave some hope for the Palestinians and those who side with humanity that it would lead to deterring the Israeli occupation.

The European leaders used very strong language as they spoke out against the Israeli occupation state, its army and its crimes to the degree that Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of Israel’s closest allies, said: “What the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, I frankly no longer understand with what goal.”

At the Re:publica digital conference in Berlin, Merz also stated that a line had been crossed and international humanitarian law had been breached, stressing that causing such suffering to the civilian population “can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism.”

Prior to Merz, leaders of three European countries clearly expressed their abhorrence with what the Israeli military is doing in Gaza. “The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Canada said in a joint statement.

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They even criticised Israeli remarks about allowing the entry of minimal food for the starving people of Gaza. “[The] announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate. We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.”

Meanwhile, they even condemned the language of the extremist Israeli ministers who express their real intention about the Israeli planned annihilation of the Palestinians – the owners of the land of Palestine, where Israel was created in 1948.

“We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law,” their statement read.

Even US President Donald Trump has several times hinted he wanted an end to the genocide in Gaza. “[Trump] has made it very clear he wants to see this conflict in the region end,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked about reported severance of relations between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his decision to expand the attacks against Gaza and ignoring the American ceasefire proposal that would see an end to the genocide. 

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Many European and world leaders have also started to speak out loudly against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, giving some hope for Gaza’s residents that this would lead to real action on the ground and push the Israeli occupation to stop its killing machine.

However, a few days later, it became clear that the European calls were no more than a propaganda ruse aimed at pushing their opposition to tone down their protests against the Israeli occupation, its leaders and soldiers who are now scared of visiting several European countries, fearing investigation orders and detention.

Despite all that was said, no country has taken tangible steps on the ground except Spain, which has been speaking out against the genocide since it started. All of the leaders of the other countries are calling for the Israeli occupation to stop its genocide, while at the same time, they are sending arms for it to continue the genocide.

For Trump, who wants to see the war ended, the Israeli occupation marked the 600th day of its genocide in Gaza by issuing a statistic, noting that a US has sent 800 planes and 140 ships with weapons to the Israeli occupation state since the start of the genocide.

Other countries, including France, Germany, the US and Canada continue to send arms and spare parts of military equipment, to the occupation state in order to inflict more suffering on the Palestinian people.

The worst and most hypocritical stance was that of the UK which declared that it stopped trade talks with the Israeli occupation state while Lord Ian Austin, the UK government’s trade envoy to Israel, said earlier this week he is visiting the occupation state “to meet businessmen and officials to promote trade with the UK.”

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Additionally, the UK police continue to hunt and harass journalists and activists who expose the Israeli crimes and spread awareness about its genocide in the blockaded Gaza Strip. They include, for example, Sarah Wilkinson, Shameen Suliman and Asa Winstanley.

As a Palestinian, I immediately recognised the hypocrisy of European and US leaders because their recent statements came almost two years after the genocide started and Israeli killing of more than 60,000 people, wounding around 200,000 and displacing the entire 2.4million inhabitants of Gaza.

Their fake condemnation was discredited because the premise of that condemnation was wrong. They blamed what the Israeli occupation is doing on the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, ignoring the historical context and the endless list of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, ignoring that Israel is an occupation state, and denying the right to resist the occupation.

They also referred to what the Palestinian resistance did on 7 October as a “heinous crime” while all they said about the Israeli genocide in Gaza is that it “is intolerable.” They also called for the immediate freedom of the remaining 58 Israeli detainees and their dead, while completely ignoring that more than 12,000 Palestinian hostages continue to endure ill-treatment and torture inside Israeli jails.

Anyone who wants to be trusted about siding with the truth, must translate words into actions. And, in the context of Palestine, he must abandon the lies and propaganda spoken about the victims of Israel’s genocide.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.