Europe will never agree on Israel – but here’s a way it can act to help Gaza | Nathalie Tocci

The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner - and that gives it leverage to finally change the course of this brutal war

European consciences have started waking up to the Israeli government's crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories - and it is about time. What has caused this long and slow awakening? Is it Israel's killing of more than 54,000 Palestinians since Hamas's horrific attack on 7 October 2023? Thousands of babies at risk of dying from starvation and malnutrition? Civilians burning alive? Israeli ministers' plans to reoccupy and recolonise the Gaza Strip, expelling Palestinians? Or perhaps it's the Israeli army firing shots at diplomats, including Europeans, in the West Bank - or the racist chanting, during a state-funded march in Jerusalem, of death to the Arabs" and may their villages burn"?

It's probably a combination of all the above, as well as the recognition that principled pressure on Israel will certainly not come from Washington. Whatever the triggers for it, Europe may be nearing an inflection point on the graph, turning the dark page of its complicity with Israel's nearly 20-month war in Gaza.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

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