Europe Is Complicit in Israeli Genocide
European states have armed Israel through almost two years of genocide in Gaza. While the European Union’s trade deal with Israel is meant to be conditional on human rights, in practice EU leaders have turned a blind eye to its crimes.
European Union Commission vice president Kaja Kallas poses for photos with Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Moshe Saar prior to a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on February 24, 2025. (Thierry Monasse / Getty Images)
Whole cities in Gaza lie in ruins. Israel has killed at least many tens of thousands of people. Starvation is widespread, and a growing chorus of international legal experts warn of mounting genocide. Yet, the European Union continues its preferential trade and research partnership with Israel through the EU–Israel Association Agreement — a pact which is supposed to be conditional on respect for human rights. Calls to suspend the deal are growing across Europe, yet EU institutions have so far declined to act.
Marc Botenga — a member of the European parliament for the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) and vice-chair of the European parliament’s Left group — has been a leading critic of the EU’s response to Israel’s crimes. In April 2025, he and fifteen fellow legislators proposed a resolution on the immediate suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
In an interview, he spoke with Alexandra Gerasimcikova about Europe’s complicity in Israel’s crimes — and what the Left can do about it.
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