The Europeans Reward Israel

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The European Union recently decided to upgrade its level of cooperation with Israel, considering it a close partner with the right to attend meetings, participate in discussions, and benefit from the Union’s policies more than before. This decision comes at a time when Israel has offered nothing tangible or real to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah regarding the national rights of the Palestinian people, and at a time when it besieges Gaza and denies its people food and medical treatment. The European Union constantly repeats its concern for the question of peace in the Arab-Islamic region, and expresses its keenness on the necessity of progress in the negotiating process, but its latest decision once again confirms its lies.

I have never been among those who believe the European Union, whether its states act collectively or individually, will be a fundamental pillar in establishing a peace that restores to the Palestinian people something of its national rights, because it was precisely the European states that conspired against the Palestinian people and worked to displace it and replace it with Zionist Jews. The European Union may offer humanitarian aid, and indeed it does, but, logically speaking, it cannot possibly stand with a people whose states — Britain and France especially — worked to tear it apart, displace it, and erase it. These European states, which tore apart the land of the Levant and turned it into weak, feuding fiefdoms, and turned Palestine into Israel, can never be anything but with Israel against the Arabs and against the Palestinian people. Their tongues may sometimes be honeyed, but their hearts remain shackled.

Europeans sometimes offer the Palestinian people financial and food assistance, and support non-governmental organizations that employ many Palestinians, but they do this for two reasons: first, to affirm that they are humane, mindful of the circumstances of the hungry, the poor, and the wayfarer; and second, to buy political positions amounting to a relinquishment of the Palestinian people’s national rights. They use money to extort political positions gently, under slogans of realism and the art of the possible. The greatest evidence of this is that they abandoned democracy after the Hamas movement’s victory in the legislative elections, and were at the forefront of those besieging the Palestinian people in order to bring down the Hamas government. And despite their sometimes tearful eyes, they are partners with Israel and the Arab regimes in the siege of the Gaza Strip.

European governments do not respect Arabs and Palestinians, and do not see them as people of consequence deserving any regard. They look at Arabs as groups of opportunistic hedonists whom fate has willed to sit atop deserts overflowing with oil and gas, people with idle minds and savage sensibilities, skilled at nothing but brutality and barbarism. Many of us, our rulers and their loyalists especially, certainly reinforce this European view, but it remains a racist, spiteful view that takes people to task for the crimes of humiliated rulers.

Some of us think Europeans understand the Palestinian position, and detest Israel’s repressive measures against Palestinians. This is a belief resting on some scattered diplomatic phrases Europeans utter about military checkpoints, the wall, and land confiscation, but the truth is that Europeans fully share Israel’s security policies, and consider its measures justified and legitimate, and believe it has every right to take all necessary measures to defend its security. Europeans accuse the Palestinian people of terrorism, and appreciate Israel’s concern for the security of Zionist Jews. Whoever thinks Europe stands against Zionist oppression is mistaken, and whoever thinks Europeans support the establishment of a real Palestinian state is mistaken. If such beliefs were true, we would have witnessed real, practical European policies confronting Zionist arrogance. What we actually see is Europe rewarding the Zionists.

Israel is an inseparable part of the Western colonial projects, which take multiple forms and patterns depending on the historical era. Israel is an important pillar of the struggle on the international stage, and a partner in the Western wheel working to dominate the world and settle conflicts, rivalries, and disputes in favor of Western visions, and the West as a whole cannot possibly sacrifice Israel for the sake of Palestinians extending their hands begging for a loaf of bread.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الأوروبيون يكافئون إسرائيل” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.