It is being reported that President Macron of France is to visit Egypt next week. Apparently, he will visit a city near Gaza, in order to show support for the “ceasefire”. Macron has been quoted as saying “we are continually mobilising for a ceasefire”. [1]
If we were looking for an example of how European leaders (and UK) posture endlessly on Israel’s war crimes this would be an excellent example. Not content with issuing statements about “deep concern” as the latest public announcements of genocide and ethnic cleansing are made, (blatant statements openly admitting to ‘pressurising’ the civilian population are now made, as well as statements about seizing a large amount of territory), and then translated into war crimes on the ground, (blocking aid, shooting up ambulances, murdering children in wildly disproportionate attacks on possibly political rather than military targets, blowing up hospitals), Macron is now going to show up in person. He talks about “mobilising for a ceasefire”; but, everyone can see, that Israel just broke the last one. As widely predicted by serious commentators, the three-stage ceasefire which was supposed to lead to an Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war, with new governance arrangements for Gaza, never got beyond the first stage. Israel tried to extend the first stage and when that didn’t work simply broke it. The first stage was about hostage – prisoner swaps. This essentially costs Israel nothing since many of the people they are releasing from their jails were simply captured after 7 October, for this purpose. This is why they wanted stage 1 but not stage 2 or 3. It is clear that Israel negotiated in bad faith. And yet, Marcon is still “mobilising for a ceasefire”. It is clear; there is, for UK and European leaders no more of a limit on genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians than there is for Israel.
Also on this topic. I watched a documentary on Al-Jazeera yesterday. (Frustratingly, I can’t find its archived version to provide a link). It included, as well as authentic footage of a settler simply coming up to an unarmed Palestinian and shooting him in the stomach with an automatic rifle, an interesting encounter between two settlers, who looked like hoodlums, and a small group of Palestinians protecting their land. The two settlers, both carrying automatic rifles, had planted an Israeli flag on what was presented as the Palestinian farmer’s land. They were filming the encounter (in the way that people use cameras as weapons) and were saying “this is video of the Palestinian criminals who are stealing land from the state of Israel…. look at the Hamas fighters”. The latter was surreal as the Palestinians were unarmed and very obviously civilians. I was interested in their words, “the State of Israel”. I would imagine that in the minds of these settlers the “state of Israel” owns all the land in the West Bank. They are using the fact that Israel is a state as a weapon. This enables them to legitimize their apparent stealing of land from the stateless. Another clip showed an armed settler moving his sheep into land which was presented as Palestinian, and when challenged, saying, confidently that the army and police would support him. When the police arrived they asked him to leave but then told the farmer that the land had been declared a closed military zone for 2 days; thus banning him from his own land. The alignment of the criminal settler movement with the organs of the state in pursuit of Greater Israel is depicted in clear lines in this documentary – which seems to be very authentic. This depicted situation of settler and state collusion matches the one described by countless other journalists and indeed also Israeli NGOs. Still; silence from Europe. A handful of sanctions on individual settlers is pure gestural politics. [2] Blocking the travel plans of a few settlers who are probably too busy chasing Palestinians off their land to want to travel to Europe anyway is not going to have any effect whatsoever. The State of Israel is responsible and the EU and UK still continue to provide military, economic and diplomatic support for the State of Israel, regardless of what it does.
Notes
- https://www.barrons.com/news/macron-on-egypt-visit-to-go-near-gaza-to-show-support-for-ceasefire-8d72bbb0
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-uk-sanctions-target-illegal-outposts-and-organisations-supporting-extremist-israeli-settlers-in-the-west-bank https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/07/15/extremist-israeli-settlers-in-the-occupied-west-bank-and-east-jerusalem-as-well-as-violent-activists-blocking-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-five-individuals-and-three-entities-sanctioned-under-the-eu-global-human-rights-sanctions-regime/