100 days of aggression on Gaza. And its European repercussions

The brutal war waged by the Israeli occupation on Gaza has sparked widespread popular sympathy for Palestinians in European capitals (Getty Images)

The events of the seventh of October - and the subsequent brutal aggression, genocide and systematic ethnic cleansing by the Israeli occupation state against the Palestinian people in Gaza - had a sharp reflection on all political, popular, media and legal levels in Western Europe, which is a real political earthquake by several standards, and will have strategic effects on the course of European dealing with the Palestinian file in both the near and distant future.

We understand these implications in the context of the strategic and strong relationship between the occupying power and Western Europe at the federal and national continental level and to degrees. This comes – historically – in all areas of life, starting with the decision to establish the state more than a hundred years ago, and then working to establish and lay its foundations, especially as it is located in a hostile environment in general, as well as ensuring its development, stability and continued strength in the region throughout its 76 years of existence.

The occupying power has become an integral and organic part of the European fabric in all aspects of life, and has a special place in all dimensions, even social, cultural and other detailed fields, and it is present in terms of its strong support in official and private media platforms, as Europe is considered par excellence as a natural extension of the occupying state.

Roofless support

The evidence in this context is too great to count, including special trade agreements and concessions, military support and technological feeding, the presence of the occupying power in all sports and cultural competitions with full capacity and without stopping or protesting from anyone, the size and depth of the influence of the Jewish minority in various European countries and their influence on political decisions and media presence, and that they are candidates whenever they want as immigrants to the occupying power (within the Jewish Law of Return), which feeds the state's nerve in the demographic dimension and its extensions in all sectors, including the army. What this means is a full European involvement in the conflict and being face to face with the Palestinians.

On the other hand, the development of Palestine's presence in terms of supporting the justice of its cause in several forms has become remarkable, as the presence of the Palestinian minority in number, and its distribution throughout the geography of the continent, especially Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, with different statistics for their numbers and estimates ranging from half a million to seven hundred thousand, as well as the case of the Arab and Muslim minority, numbering up to 30 million Arabs and Muslims, and the growing movement to support Palestine by the original European peoples, where this led to many factors and its effects and influence became clear, especially the movement Boycott.

Despite all this, there is a clear formation of two camps: Palestinian and Israeli on the European scale, with their different weight and influence, and this has resulted in a debate and a disciplined conflict under the roof of the law, which is declared and manifested in many and varied forms and is controlled by European laws and the rule of law.

New positions

Therefore, the conflict that is taking place in occupied Palestine is a domestic European affair par excellence and its repercussions are direct and immediate. This has already been evident throughout the past hundred days of aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and has fluctuated up and down on both sides of the conflict in all open and available fields in order for each side to feed its narrative and narrative. Each camp feeds its position in its spheres of influence, reflecting its long-standing convictions in attempts to penetrate the other's spaces.

Here, it should be noted that European interaction has two dimensions: official and popular, and there is a wider distance between them in general in the fairness of Palestinian rights.

At the political level, the official European collective position – at the level of the European Union as well as many countries at the country level, most notably Germany – has largely identified with the occupying power by giving it all the right to defend itself without limits, and this was reflected in the European Parliament's almost unanimous vote on October 19, 2023, with 500 votes against 21 and 24 abstentions, as it gave cover to the operations of the occupying state.

The situation shifted slightly after the horror of the massacres and other factors to "recognize the right of response taking into account international humanitarian law in the protection of civilians, while remaining consistent in not supporting the cessation of aggression and the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid."

Due to many factors, most notably the brutality of the aggression and its catastrophic effects, as well as the European popular solidarity movement, European countries have taken – individually – a position that distances itself from the collective European position, such as Spain, Belgium, and Ireland, and the French position took a new form away from the absolute political border, such as Germany, and this appeared in the Security Council vote in support of the Arab draft resolution that failed with the American veto.

The same is the case outside the European Union in Norway, and we recall here the press conference of the Prime Ministers of Spain and Belgium in front of the Rafah crossing, demanding the entry of aid, as well as the historic vote on November 15 to expel the ambassador of the occupation state from Dublin, which received 55 "demanders", compared to 85 "rejectionists", in a remarkable strategic rapprochement.

A crack in the European position

The official European position at the European summit ended in the middle of last month / December / December - with its failure to issue a statement on what is happening in Palestine, noting only in the general statement that there was a dialogue on the Middle East. This reflects differences and divergence in attitudes in itself as positive.

Therefore, we consider that the political outcome has given points in favor of Palestine and the occurrence of clear cracks in the European political wall on which the occupying power is based.

It is important to stop at popular stations and activities throughout the continent that were directly directed at politicians, communicating with them and influencing them, whether at the level of governments or parliament.

Demonstrations, sit-ins, sit-ins and events were held in what the European Palestinian Media Center documented with more than 6000,400 activities in more than 15 European cities in 90 countries other than Britain during the first 20 days of the outbreak of the aggression, with the diversity of demonstrators of different races, cultures, political backgrounds and ages. The demonstrations are still growing and expanding, as solidarity in Spain announced the organization of demonstrations next Saturday, January 67, in <> cities in parallel, and thus attended the scenes in the European streets reflected by the media to have a great political impact.

Solidarity activists adopted forms that broke into public life in Europe, and here we mention spontaneous strikes at train stations, most notably the Netherlands, where they were repeated on several days apart, such as the scene of demonstrations in nine stations at the same time and in parallel. As well as political petitions such as Denmark's petition demanding an end to the aggression, which was signed by 80,<> people, and there is the European medical sector and its active involvement in demonstrations and support for the afflicted medical sector in Gaza, and the white coat marches that swept Europe.

Media Transformation

The demonstrators did not care about any circumstances or obstacles that prevented the continuation of their activities. In the context of the popular effort, we refer to the campaign launched by the Brussels-based European-Palestinian Council for Political Relations to urge supporters of the Palestinian right to prepare early for the upcoming European Parliament elections next June, and for Palestine to be present in front of the candidates.

On the media side, the European audio-visual and written media reflected what is happening in Gaza, and reported the aforementioned demonstrations and turned to giving them an objective positive dimension. On the media side, the European media has moved significantly closer to the Palestinian narrative, and here we mention the detailed report issued by the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on December 8, about the martyr Dr. Youssef Jadallah, a German national, who was on vacation in Gaza, and was martyred with his wife and three children, and what was expected at the beginning of the aggression. We stop at the new media and social media platforms and their positive impact in favor of the justice of the cause, especially with the involvement of the new generation of young people in huge and professional numbers.

The Palestinian narrative also imposed itself on the Western media, so the South African file in The Hague - in defense of the Palestinian people - had a great impact, as the media scene dominated ably and distinctly, for example, the BBC English page summarized the judicial file of the South African delegation with the sentence: "The will of Israeli officials to destroy Gaza."

On the side supporting the occupation state, there are those who went to "legalize" support for the occupation state and limit and push the Palestinian solidarity movement back, and the most prominent example of this is Germany's position, and going far by issuing laws to obtain citizenship, provided that an explicit position is declared by the applicant towards the occupation state.

On the other hand, the solidarity movement with the Palestinian grievance in the legal field has taken advanced positive forms. We mention the international legal coalition, which has been joined by hundreds of jurists, and whose complaints have been submitted to the International Criminal Court on behalf of the families of the victims, and here we refer to an important element, which is the presence of hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza who are European citizens, which constitutes a pressing judicial factor in submitting complaints, and some of them have lost dozens of their first-degree relatives to kinship.

In the same regard, the Republic of South Africa, with its pleadings in the International Court of Justice and its comprehensive file, came to have a reliable reference in terms of describing the murders, genocide, ethnic cleansing, destruction and displacement that took place in numbers, and supporting this through the presence of prominent legal figures, so that South Africa would grab the political imamate in defense of the Palestinian cause globally, and all those concerned with the issue - and in degrees - were forced to line up behind it in congregation.

We conclude that after 100 days of aggression on Gaza, many positive and strategic events have taken place in Europe that have won the issue politically, legally, popularly and in the media, and the Palestinian narrative has found its way to the European collective conscience, which requires real investment by the Palestinian people and their supporters.