Europe’s Blind Eye to Israel’s War Crimes Shows the “Rules-Based Order” Is a Cruel Farce
Faced with Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza, European leaders have offered unqualified support. Their disinterest in defending international law shows there’s no such thing as “a rules-based order” — just imperial powers, and their chosen allies.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, speaks at the lectern in the European Parliament building on October 18, 2023, as the Parliament debates the war in Israel and the preparation for the EU summit at the end of October. (Philipp von Ditfurth / picture alliance via Getty Images)
In October 2012, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the European Union since it had “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.” A decade later, a new war on the continent divided Europe — and Russia had just begun bombing civilian targets.
Responding to this next wave of Russian aggression against Ukrainian citizens in October 2022, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated firmly: “Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating, with winter coming — these are acts of pure terror. And we have to call it as such.”
On October 7 — a year since the attack on civil targets in Ukraine — another military conflict erupted when Hamas violently broke out of Gaza and killed or took hostage over a thousand Israeli civilians. In response to Hamas’s attacks, Israel’s energy minister declared that in Gaza, “No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter” until the “abductees” would be released. His government acted accordingly. This “complete siege” of Gaza is pure “collective punishment” — something that the United Nations considers a war crime.
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