“By refusing to act, EU leaders decided to be complicit with the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” Chris Lockyear, secretary-general of medical organization MSF International, told POLITICO by email. “EU leaders must now show the courage and political will to act.”
Save the Children joined the chorus of humanitarians urging EU leaders to move past “hollow statements” and impose sanctions. “The lack of decisive action from the EU leadership over the last 21 months gives them a crushing responsibility for the atrocities we see happening in Gaza,” said Maria Luz Larosa, head of international affairs.
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said the EU’s inaction so far had given Israel a “green light to press forward with its ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians.”
The exhortations coincided with some tougher language from European capitals on Israel’s treatment of the Gaza population.
On Thursday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron said France will formally recognize Palestinian statehood. “The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population,” he wrote.
Hours later, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also released a strongly worded statement describing “the suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza [as] unspeakable and indefensible,” adding that “we are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” — which is further than Starmer has yet gone on the matter.
