On Monday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen gave a speech at a ceremony to remember the victims of the Hamas atrocities committed on October 7 last year. Much of what she said is to be applauded.
On some details, however, she shows either ignorance or callousness. With speeches like this, the EU has dim chances of being taken seriously as a human rights champion in the southern Mediterranean and beyond.
Von der Leyen is obviously right that Hamas committed atrocities. She was inaccurate when she said the 1,139 victims were killed in cold blood. Almost 400 were Israeli security forces who were fighting back fiercely. Some of the 695 civilian victims were killed by Israeli fire (with a debate, within Israel, on whether they were killed in the fog of war or on higher orders).
Other early claims have been debunked – including by Israeli media. No babies were burned or ripped from the womb. One baby, of 10 months, was shot and killed. There is no evidence of widespread, systemic rape.
But 38 children were killed, seven of them aged six or younger. Some were indeed shot in cold blood with their parents. Another 42 children were abducted. And that says nothing about the orphans, and those suffering from trauma, and the displaced children whose schooling has been disrupted.
Von der Leyen is right to say each one should be remembered. The name of the murdered baby is Mila Cohen. Kfir Bibas was eight months old when he was abducted; he died in captivity. The corpse of Adir Tahar, a soldier, was beheaded; Adir’s family buried him without his head.
Everyone should be remembered. So it’s embarrassing to hear von der Leyen declare that Hamas’s victims were killed because they were Jews. How does she explain the several dozen dead and abducted Israeli Palestinians?
Awad Darweshe, a 23-year-old paramedic, refused to abandon the wounded Israelis out of a sense of Muslim duty. He was beaten and killed by the terrorists. Fatima Altallaqat, 35, was wearing a traditional headdress clearly marking her as a Bedouin and Muslim; she was pumped with 40 bullets.
Everyone should be remembered but von der Leyen doesn’t remember them to the same degree. She remembers the Israeli victims – the dead, the abducted, the kibbutz turned into a ghost town – by number. However, when she alludes to the 41,800 dead Palestinians, she refers only to “the innocent victims of the tragic chain of events set off by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7”.
What, no numbers? No nationality? Over 34,000 have been identified by name. There’s an uploaded video listing each one. It takes a minute to scroll through the children under one year of age. It takes almost a quarter of an hour to read through all the teenagers. As for the adults, they too have left behind orphans, traumatised, displaced, starving and ill.
The commission president blames it all on Hamas. That is not serious. No reasonable person could say it all started that day.
Von der Leyen, speaking of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon, says “all civilians must be protected”. Before October 7, Palestinian citizens were not protected. Thousands had been killed and jailed. In the first nine months of 2023 alone, 38 children were killed – the deadliest year for Palestinian children on record till then.
Ursola von der Leyen undermined all calls for a ceasefire (including her own)- Ranier Fsadni
Even if we decide that history began on October 7, what happened next was hardly a “chain of events” that couldn’t unfold any other way. Israel was obliged to respond but it could have responded in alternative ways.
If von der Leyen believes the Palestinian dead include innocent civilians, where was she when several senior Israeli ministers declared that there were no innocents?
The whole of Gaza was dehumanised. That rhetoric was an integral part of the Israeli response. You could see it reflected in the videos uploaded by Israeli soldiers desecrating Palestinian homes.
The targeting of civilian infrastructure in Gaza has been blamed on Hamas hiding its assets in civilian areas. But why were Christians shot and killed in church? Why did Israeli snipers shoot children in the head?
If Hamas is hiding in Gaza, why is the West Bank being attacked? Why is Israel’s prime minister openly referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria”? That makes it part of Israel, whereas the International Court of Justice has declared it to be illegally occupied.
Little of this was a necessary reaction to Hamas. When you suggest it was, you absolve Israeli leaders of moral responsibility for their own atrocities.
Von der Leyen undermined all calls for a ceasefire (including her own). Why would Netanyahu stop if he can see the commission president pepper her speech with euphemisms to avoid calling him out directly in public?
The EU is a minor player in this growing regional war. The stakes won’t be affected by the handful of member states that have decided to restrict arms supplies to Israel. What our leaders say and do is almost entirely a statement of principle.
But principled statements do matter. It is right for von der Leyen to declare that anti-Semitism in the EU is unacceptable. An EU that can’t make its Jews feel safe is deplorable. It betrays itself.
But it’s also deplorable if the EU can’t bring itself to speak concretely in favour of everyone’s human rights. Just over a decade ago, it was banging on in favour of human rights in the southern Mediterranean. Now we’re down to hand-wringing and euphemisms.
The EU wants to be taken seriously in the global south. It’s not and you can see why.