Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has been facing an unprecedented massacre, with the Israeli occupation claiming the lives of over 195,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced under a suffocating blockade that cuts off access to water, food, and medical supplies.
These crimes, documented by the United Nations and human rights organizations, go far beyond simple human rights violations and fall within the framework of genocide.
Yet the European Union continues a policy of silence and hesitation, failing to take meaningful punitive action despite its role as a major economic and political partner and the second-largest arms supplier to Israel.
European inaction effectively gives Israel a green light to continue its crimes, a stance Amnesty International has described as a “cruel and unlawful betrayal,” placing the EU in the position of an indirect accomplice to ongoing genocide.
The numbers speak for themselves: trade between the EU and Israel reaches approximately €40 billion annually, with €20 billion in Israeli exports to the EU and €20 billion in European exports to Israel.
Imposing real economic sanctions—starting with a ban on products from Israeli settlements and suspending all forms of research and educational cooperation such as Erasmus+ and Horizon—would exert significant economic and legal pressure on Israel.
The EU’s response cannot be limited to economic measures alone. It must include suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement entirely, freezing visas for Israeli officials, and halting arms and military technology exports, including advanced surveillance equipment used to repress civilians.
Crucially, the EU should invoke universal jurisdiction to hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes and acts of genocide, ensuring that no one escapes justice, including war criminal Netanyahu, who bears direct responsibility for these crimes.
European hesitation, even amid growing public pressure across Europe, harms not only Palestinians but also exposes the EU to legal and moral accountability.
The Union stands at a crossroads: it can either uphold the values on which it was founded and act as a real force to stop the violations and enforce international law, or it risks becoming complicit in ongoing genocide through its silence and inaction.
Europe has long maintained a strong presence in the Middle East, funding conferences, trainings, and human rights institutions.
Yet this sustained engagement rarely translates into concrete action when confronted with the systematic atrocities committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people.
The gap between rhetoric and actual action reveals a troubling inconsistency: financial and institutional support exists, yet decisive measures to confront the ongoing genocide are conspicuously absent
The time for political maneuvering is over; the EU must act decisively and transparently with concrete measures. Palestinian victims cannot wait, and every day of delay constitutes implicit participation in these ongoing crimes.
