Afrasianet - In an op-ed published in the British newspaper The Guardian, writer and political analyst Shada al-Islam criticized the European Union 's inaction on Israel's war on Gaza, describing this stance as a reflection of the "structural racism and colonial mentality" rooted in European politics.
She said that Europe portrays the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis, not as a deliberate political choice, stressing that there will be moral accountability for this inaction.
For nearly two years, it has been desperately following the inability of European governments to take any effective steps as Israel continues to destroy Gaza with bombardment, assassinations and deliberate starvation since the attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Largest Business Partner
Although the EU has many punitive tools at its disposal, it refuses to use them. The bloc is Israel's largest trading partner, accounting for 32 percent of its total trade in 2024.
However, in her opinion, European leaders and ministers failed in each meeting to secure the necessary majority to suspend the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel, despite pressure from Spain, Ireland and Slovenia, and reports by EU human rights experts that confirmed that Israel was violating its human rights obligations in the agreement.
Attitudes toward Gaza are shaped by a colonial mentality rooted in the Union's foreign and trade policies and in migration.
Political and moral paralysis
While acknowledging that it understands Europe's "historical guilt complex," its internal divisions, and its deep economic ties with Israel, it has linked what it calls Europe's "political and moral paralysis" over the Palestinian tragedy to the "structural racism" and violence that many Muslims and Black and brown people on the continent are subjected to every day.
It seems clear, according to the Guardian article, that attitudes towards Gaza are shaped by a colonial mentality that is entrenched in the Union's foreign and trade policies and in immigration.
The same discriminatory logic exercised against Europeans of color and refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East is now manifested in the Union's abandonment of the Palestinian people.
Shada Islam, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and currently resides in the Belgian capital, Brussels, also compared the resolute European stance towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine to complete laxity in the face of Israeli violations, considering that this exposes the double standards of Europe and undermines its international credibility.
The EU writer stressed that what is happening in Gaza cannot be reduced to a "humanitarian crisis" but rather a deliberate political choice stemming from ongoing colonial policies.
Removing the cover of European hypocrisy
She called on the European Union to confront its colonial past and reconsider its anti-racism plans so as not to lose its credibility internally and externally.
She stressed the need for accountability to be comprehensive rather than partial, and to include an acknowledgement that these positions stem from the overlap of Europe's past and present, not only in Palestine, but also in its various actions in the international arena.
However, it concludes that any serious calculation of the EU's inaction will remain incomplete unless structural racism and the remnants of the colonial structures that continue to shape Europe's worldview are confronted.
Gaza has stripped European "hypocrisy" of any cover, calling on European policymakers to confront these painful realities and work to dismantle them.
Netanyahu is a politician without morals and his army is draining in Gaza
In this context, international newspapers have covered the developments of the war on the Gaza Strip, with some saying that the Israeli army is suffering from attrition, while others have said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, has become a model of corrupt politics that lacks morality.
Sever Blocker wrote an article in Yedioth Ahronoth in which he said that Netanyahu has become a symbol of corrupt, arrogant and morally unchecked politics, pointing out that hundreds of thousands of Israelis are taking to the streets to demand his removal from office.
In The Times, a report said the Israeli military was suffering from severe attrition in its ranks due to heavy reliance on reservists, noting that the crisis was exacerbated by the refusal of ultra-Orthodox Jews to join military service.
The newspaper pointed to reports that the Israeli army is seeking to fill this shortage by recruiting volunteers from Jewish communities abroad, especially in countries such as the United States and France.
The Jerusalem Post published an article by the CEO of the Shamir Medical Center, Osnat Kurakh, in which she said that Israel is facing what it called a "national shock pandemic," explaining that the effects of the wars "include the hidden suffering of soldiers who return with healthy bodies but trauma-laden minds."
Addressing this crisis "requires public recognition and serious investments in treatment," she said, warning that silence will not solve the problem.
In a context related to the war, the head of the English department at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, Ahmed Kamal Geneina, wrote an article for the Guardian newspaper, in which he said that he was writing the article in a state of extreme hunger that prevented him from thinking properly, and that "it is difficult to maintain mental alertness when the body is thin and dehydrated."
"As researchers, we are supposed to instill libertarian thinking in students, but when our daily reality is hunger, sadness and homelessness, we start to question whether we are still playing this role."