What Gaza exposed to the world should have been recognised from the start by Western leaders. But as long as Israel was standing against a defenceless population, the West remained ensconced within its narrative, complicit in Israel’s killing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. When starvation became a point of contention after the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was banned by Israel, the EU prioritised its humanitarian discourse and found a fragment of consensus upon which it could criticise Israel.

Once Israel decided to attack Iran, the EU swiftly found another niche for Israel’s security narrative, taking cues from Israel, of course.

Since Israel’s security narrative still holds sway, Palestinians remain on the bottom most rung of EU foreign policy. Instead of viewing Israel’s belligerence – sustaining the genocide in Gaza and attacking Iran based upon decades of Zionist incendiary rhetoric – as a reason to apply punitive measures, the EU takes a step back from acting against Israel’s interests, which are also its own