Effective European pressure on Israel is necessary not only to end the Israeli occupation and the plausible genocide in Gaza, but also for Israel’s future
Last week I, along with over 2500 Israelis, signed an open letter calling on the international community to apply effective pressure on Israel to achieve an immediate ceasefire. This appeal has already been published in the Guardian and Liberation. I signed this appeal not only because I believe that Israel is committing serious war crimes in Gaza, but also because I am deeply concerned about the future of Israel - where I was born and raised and where my family still lives today.
On October 7 last year, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1200 people, including more than 800 civilians, and taking more than 250 people hostage in the Gaza Strip, I was shocked. There is no justification for the targeted killing of civilians and their abduction and there never will be. These are war crimes and everyone must condemn them.
Now I am just as shocked by the events in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon as I was on October 7. Israel has been bombing Gaza for more than a year - schools, hospitals and UN facilities are attacked almost daily. People have starved and died of thirst. More than 40,000 have already been killed, including at least 13,000 children. This number is, however, only a minimum estimate, as it only includes those who have been admitted to hospitals or whose bodies were recovered. Today, however, there are few - if any - functioning hospitals in Gaza. In addition, more than 10,000 people are currently buried under the rubble. Together with the still unknown number of people who have died due to the indirect effects of the war, such as hunger and illness, the number of deaths may exceed 100,000 according to health experts.
This war is no longer about fighting Hamas, but about the destruction of Gaza. Since 7.10, high-ranking figures in Israeli political and military leadership, in the media and even well-known cultural figures have been explicitly calling for the destruction of Gaza as a whole and the indiscriminate killing of civilians. The Israeli president, Yitzhak Herzog, said that “[The Palestinians in Gaza] are an entire nation that is responsible... This rhetoric about unconscious, uninvolved (in the 7.10. attack) - it’s absolutely not true”. IDF soldiers themselves post videos on social media in which they destroy and burn houses, loot property and torture Palestinian prisoners. All of this suggests that for Israel and the IDF, the value of Palestinian civilian life is practically nonexistent. The ICJ and numerous NGOs have already established that a plausible genocide is taking place in Gaza.
The Israeli government has abandoned the hostages kidnapped by Hamas who are still in Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, the Forum of Hostages’ Families has been calling on the government to make a hostage exchange deal with Hamas so that their loved ones could return home alive (Ayala Metzger, the wife of Hamas-murdered hostage Yoram Metzger, has also signed the letter). Nevertheless, the government has so far caused the negotiations to fail, even with offers that Hamas has already accepted. The longer this war lasts, the lower the chances of returning the hostages alive. Military operations have presumably killed more hostages than they have saved.
Fascist forces have grown stronger within Israeli society. Civil society is increasingly being threatened and weakened. This especially applies to Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are increasingly marginalized and politically persecuted. In the West Bank, state-sponsored settler violence is increasing dramatically, with settlements receiving more state funding than ever before. The war in Lebanon threatens to spread to the entire region. The situation is dramatic, especially for the Palestinians, but also for the Israelis
There are democratic forces within Israel that are campaigning against the war and in favor of a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. Unfortunately, however, they are too weak to achieve their goals themselves. The majority of Israelis and almost the entire political leadership support the continuation of the war. The few who speak out and campaign against the war are socially and politically marginalized and persecuted.
That is why other countries must exert their influence on Israel to support these democratic forces. If the Israeli state can commit such crimes without consequence, Israel gets the impression that it is permissible to act in this way.
The EU and EU countries have far-reaching influence on Israel through their military, economic, scientific, academic and cultural relations with Israel. Ending all these agreements, especially the EU-Israel Association Agreement, as well as stopping the supply of arms from EU countries to Israel (as numerous EU countries have already declared or de facto did), can put great pressure on Israel to end the genocidal war. It is therefore Europe’s responsibility to do everything in its power to stop war crimes by all parties and uphold international law - not with empty statements, as has been the case so far, but with concrete measures.
This responsibility also arises from the fact that Israel is currently on a suicidal trajectory. Israel is more insecure today than at any time in recent decades - hundreds of thousands of Israelis from the north and south of Israel are unable to return to their homes because of the war. Only through political arrangements that provide justice for all people between the river and the sea can Israelis achieve lasting security. The longer this war goes on, the less likely this possibility looks. If Europe calls itself a friend of Israel, it must not allow Israel to continue on its present course.
For these reasons, as an Israeli, I call on the EU states and institutions to take concrete measures to exert pressure on Israel. Sometimes a good friend has to save his friend from himself. Now is that time.
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