Europe did not rediscover its soul when Palestinian blood was spilled. It did not find its moral courage when homes, hospitals, universities, archives and entire neighbourhoods were destroyed, or when families were displaced from one supposed safe zone to another, only to discover that safety itself had become a fiction. Europe watched, expressed concern, called for restraint and repeated its commitment to international law. It performed morality while refusing to exercise power.

Long before Gaza was devastated, Europe had already been warned that the system imposed upon Palestinians was not merely an unfortunate occupation awaiting a diplomatic solution. Palestinian, Israeli and international human-rights organisations including BADIL, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International had increasingly described it by its proper name: apartheid. The International Court of Justice reinforced this in its 2024 advisory opinion, finding that Israel maintained a near-complete physical and legal separation between Palestinian and settler communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, breaching Article 3 of the CERD—the provision prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid.

Europe heard all of this and responded as though it had received a mildly troubling policy paper. There was no rupture in relations, no comprehensive economic pressure and no serious attempt to confront the system Europe claimed to oppose. European leaders continued speaking about a “peace process” long after that process had become a rhetorical shelter for permanent domination.

Apartheid was treated not as a crime demanding consequences, but as an uncomfortable word whose use had to be endlessly debated. Europe devoted more political energy to policing the language used to describe Palestinian oppression than to ending the oppression itself.

Apartheid was treated not as a crime demanding consequences, but as an uncomfortable word whose use had to be endlessly debated. Europe devoted more political energy to policing the language used to describe Palestinian oppression than to ending the oppression itself.

Once again, the gravest accusation did not remain confined to protest movements or political activists. In 2024, a United Nations Special Rapporteur found reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of genocidal acts had been met. Amnesty International later concluded that Israel had committed and was continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars adopted a resolution on Gaza through its formal voting process, with a large majority of participating members supporting it.

Europe hid behind the absence of a final judgment from the International Court of Justice. Yet the Genocide Convention was not written to provide states with a vocabulary of regret after a people has been destroyed. Its central obligation is prevention. Prevention cannot begin after the final ruling, when the dead have........

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