On Saturday 7 October, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for a time overshadowed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, re-emerged on the international stage in tragic fashion. Again.
Crossing the highly secure border between Gaza and Israel, the Hamas terrorist movement, which controls the enclave with an iron fist, unleashed its hatred, mainly against Israeli civilians, but also foreigners present in neighbouring populated areas. One thousand three hundred people were massacred.
Armed with its firepower, the Israeli army quickly regained control of the territory. But the riposte doesn’t stop there. In retaliation, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has promised to put an end to Hamas and even to reconfigure the Middle East.
The international community, the western world, including the European Union, is rallying behind Israel, invoking its right to defend itself. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, received the Israeli ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, at the College meeting, while the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, welcomed families of the victims. They asked, rightly so, to spare the hostages taken by force to Gaza to be used as bargaining chips and human shields. The European Parliament held a minute’s silence on its esplanade in Brussels in honour of the victims of the terrorist attacks. Its President, Roberta Metsola, and Mrs von der Leyen travelled to Israel on Friday 13 October to express the EU’s support, following in the footsteps of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, was the first at European level to go further than condemning the terrorist attack, deploring all attacks on civilians, Israeli and Palestinian (see EUROPE 13268/1). “And it means ‘no blockage of water, food, or electricity to the civil population, to open humanitarian corridors, to facilitate people who have to escape the bombing from Gaza through Egypt’”, said Mr Borrell, considering that “certain actions” by Israel were “not in line with international law”.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli army said it had dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza, some of them containing phosphorus, according to Human Rights Watch. The Tsahal then gave the Gazans 24 hours to withdraw from the north of the enclave, foreshadowing a large-scale ground offensive. Considering it impossible to move more than a million people on such short notice in a small territory, the United Nations has warned against worsening an already disastrous humanitarian situation.
Beyond the legitimate emotion, the European Union, which tirelessly advocates a two-State solution coexisting in peace - one Israeli, the other Palestinian - and which criticises the policy of colonisation by referring to the UN resolutions of 1967 constantly ignored by Israel, would be well advised to maintain equidistance in a conflict whose sole outcome can only be political.
In October 2022, in Parliament, Mrs von der Leyen described Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, particularly the electricity grid, as ‘war crimes’. A year later, she says little about the general blockade of Gaza imposed by the Israeli authorities. When asked about the two modus operandi that targeted civilians, the Commission spokesman simply recalled the context and circumstances, making it clear that the situations would not be comparable. He also felt it was not his place to judge the most appropriate measures to enable Israel to combat Hamas. On Friday, he expressed his “fears” about the deteriorating humanitarian situation, offering the EU’s help in creating humanitarian corridors.
Pressed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Mr Michel finally stressed the importance of international humanitarian aid reaching the bombed civilian populations in Gaza. Mrs von der Leyen also indicated that humanitarian aid to the Palestinians was without question, even if the uncontrolled outbursts of the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Olivér Várhelyi, and the announcement that the channels for distributing this aid were currently being evaluated made the message inaudible.
But none of them called for a stop to the bloodshed. The right to defend oneself, of course, but at what price in terms of loss of life? When does the right to defend oneself become the right to take revenge by inflicting collective punishment?
One day, perhaps, when the extremists on all sides are no longer in power, we will have to return to the negotiating table, because the Israelis will not be safe as long as more than two million Palestinians survive locked in alongside them, not to mention the West Bank. This is one of the lessons to be learned from the appalling attack on Israel. And on that day, if the European Union intends to be a credible interlocutor, it must be careful not to condemn certain atrocities while overlooking others. There can be no selectiveness in denouncing human rights violations.
Otherwise, the door is open to double standards.
(Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)