EU to face reckoning for Gaza inaction: The Guardian

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
19 Aug 2025 15:12
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Shada Islam argues in The Guardian that the EU's refusal to suspend its Association Agreement with "Israel" amid the Gaza war exposes deep structural racism and double standards.

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Ahmed Al-Hajj carries the body of his daughter, Dana Al-Hajj, 13, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP)

Commentator on EU affairs Shada Islam wrote in The Guardian on Tuesday that the European Union's failure to act decisively against "Israel's" war on Gaza reflects not only political paralysis but also entrenched racism within the bloc.

Islam argued that Europe has consistently treated the devastation in Gaza as a "humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice," warning that "there will be a moral reckoning" for the EU's inaction.

The piece criticizes EU leaders for refusing to deploy available measures such as suspending trade deals or research cooperation with "Israel." Despite calls from Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, member states have failed to secure the majority needed to suspend the EU-"Israel" Association Agreement, even after the bloc's own human rights experts signaled that "Israel" was breaching its obligations.

EU’s hollow review

Her concerns echo recent developments: in June 2025, the European Commission launched a review of the agreement’s human rights clause (Article 2), concluding that there were “indications” of violations, but stopping short of recommending suspension.

Rights groups denounced the review as a “green light” for further atrocities. Then, in July 2025, EU foreign ministers rejected proposals for sanctions and the suspension of trade or research provisions, despite growing pressure from civil society and some member states. Critics described this refusal as a “cruel and unlawful betrayal.”

Germany and Italy were singled out for blocking a proposal to partially suspend "Israel" from the €95 billion Horizon Europe research program, which former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as a "bad joke" given the scale of "Israel's" actions.

While the Commission has since proposed a more limited step, namely a partial suspension of "Israel’s" participation in the European Innovation Council’s Accelerator program, the measure leaves universities and most research collaborations untouched. At the same time, Israeli exports to the EU actually rose in early 2024, while Germany alone licensed €485 million worth of arms to "Israel" in the 19 months following October 7.

Europe's double standards

The commentator acknowledged Europe's "historical guilt, internal divisions and deep economic ties with Israel," but insisted that the larger issue is structural racism, "Europe's political and moral paralysis over Gaza is intimately linked to the structural racism and violence which so many black, brown and Muslim Europeans face every day."

She contrasted the EU's muted response to Gaza with its forceful reaction to Russia's special operation in Ukraine, where unprecedented sanctions were imposed on Moscow and significant aid was sent to Kiev. "Palestinian lives, however, are treated as expendable," she wrote, adding that suffering in Gaza is "decontextualised, depoliticised and sanitised."

Islam stressed that any reckoning must go beyond Gaza to confront Europe's colonial past and systemic biases in its foreign and domestic policies. She warned that the EU's "very visible double standards will continue to undermine its democracy at home and its credibility abroad" unless serious action is taken.