The Gaza genocide will be remembered as a dramatic milestone and a great rupture in international politics. It has already demolished the last remnants of the Western-dominated international system. It has demonstrated the meaninglessness of international law, norms, values and institutions. It has been revealed that international human rights and related concepts are merely instruments used by the powerful against the weak to achieve global hegemony. The Gaza genocide, which also represents an epistemological rupture, has shown the irrelevance of the main concepts and theories of the International Relations discipline.
The Gaza genocide has caused serious political, diplomatic and legitimacy problems in most states. As the main supporters and sponsors of the genocide, Western countries have been facing important domestic and international challenges. Due to Israel’s violations of basic human rights and the national sovereignty of most regional countries, Western countries have been paying the highest price.
Similarly, the Gaza genocide has shown the European peoples that the value-based European Union has been dragged into an ontological crisis. EU institutions and officials have been clearly among the main supporters of the Netanyahu government and have been backing Israel’s atrocities and mass killings.
However, with the rise of an effective anti-Israel coalition in all European countries, some European states have changed their positions regarding the Palestinian catastrophe. The humane reaction of European peoples and politicians against their respective governments forced EU institutions to revise their positions toward the Palestinian tragedy. Due to the conflicting positions of the member states, the EU has faced an ontological problem due to the ongoing Israeli aggression against the innocent and defenseless Palestinian people.
The EU member states now have different and conflicting positions regarding the ongoing humanitarian tragedy in Palestine. Eventually, a major rift has emerged within the EU. A group of states, including Ireland, Spain and Slovenia, has been considering Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as genocide. They have been severely criticizing the EU institutions and officials for their continuous support for Israel. Many politicians from different member states have been harshly calling on EU institutions to force Israel to stop its genocide in Gaza.
Another group of EU member states, including France, Belgium and Portugal, has begun to criticize Israel for its aggression against the Palestinian people as well as other Middle Eastern countries. This group of member states now describes Israel’s military activities as “atrocities.” As a result of many internal and external dynamics, they have declared that they have recognized the State of Palestine. They no longer want to bear the cost of Israeli brutality. Otherwise, their pro-Israeli position may cost them dearly in the upcoming elections.
The last group of EU member states, including Germany, Hungary and Czechia, persistently continue their pro-Israel stance. For different reasons, they have been giving open checks to Israel and supporting Israel on all international platforms. Naturally, they refuse to recognize the Palestinian state and they oppose any anti-Israeli resolution at U.N. institutions.
Every other day, it has been more and more difficult to support the Israeli atrocities and aggression in the Middle East. After abandoning its relatively neutral position in the Israel-Palestine question in favor of Israel, the EU and its member states lost trust in the world, especially in the Muslim world. There is too much at stake for EU members in the wider Middle East. Sooner or later, pro-Israel states will pay the bill for their pro-genocide policies. That is, not only human rights concerns, but also the realpolitik requires EU member states to change their respective stance toward Israel’s aggression.
Millions of Europeans have lost trust and support for the EU’s core values. As these shared principles weaken within EU institutions, ultranationalist and far-right anti-EU parties are likely to gain more votes across member states and possibly come to power in some. We should not forget that the global economic crisis of the first decade of the century, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the influx of immigrants into Europe have already damaged the prestige of these institutions. The Gaza genocide will further undermine their legitimacy in the eyes of Europeans, not only among far-right groups but also among those concerned with human rights.
The pro-Israeli stance also weakens the EU's position in the Ukrainian-Russian War, since the union has lost its moral superiority in Gaza. It cannot claim to uphold human rights in Ukraine while supporting all kinds of human rights violations in Gaza. Suppose the EU wants to represent human rights and universal values. In that case, it must first take concrete measures against the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and its aggression toward the countries of the region.
Only after the global coalition of human rights advocates began to challenge EU member states did EU institutions and officials start to criticize Israel. In other words, even the pro-Israel EU could no longer remain indifferent to the growing influence of the pro-Palestine and pro-human rights movement worldwide. We will see whether the EU’s changed position is implemented and has an impact on the realities on the ground in Gaza.
