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After Hamas’s terrible terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, it was natural that the sympathies of the entire world, but especially the West, went to Israel. The act was bestial and unimaginably cruel.
The response from Israel was not long in coming. The terrorist organization Hamas would be crushed once and for all, and everyone around the world agreed that Israel had the right to defend itself. Of course, it is always difficult to excuse civilian casualties, especially if they can be counted in the thousands, but European leaders stuck to the obvious: Israel must be allowed to defend itself against the type of terrorist act that Hamas committed on October 7.
Then came the pro-Palestinian protests in Europe. People of Middle Eastern origin, but also many people of European origin but with a left-wing heart, took to the streets and squares, shouting about genocide, about Benjamin Netanyahu’s crimes against humanity and about immediate sanctions. Although many in the European cities where the protests took place could sympathize with the suffering of the Palestinians, fatigue gradually arose in the face of the daily and often loud protests. What could the demonstrators achieve? How could they get the Israeli government to change its policy? And what could the Western powers really do? Netanyahu might have cared what the US said, but hardly what the leaders of Western Europe thought of his war on Gaza. Then came ceasefires and hopes that everyone was tired of the fighting and killing after all.
But now it seems that things have changed. Now the political elites of Western Europe are finding it increasingly difficult to defend a continued war in Gaza. Now, at the end of May 2025, Israel has launched another offensive in Gaza. And as usual in Gaza, civilians are also getting in the way. Everyone knows that Hamas has no problem hiding among civilians, so it is Hamas that indirectly causes the civilian casualties. But it is still the case that the war had calmed down and that now it is Israel that is escalating it again.
Representatives of Sweden’s right-wing government recently wrote a debate article in the conservative daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in which they emphasize Israel’s right to try to free the hostages and its unconditional right to defend itself against a terrorist organization whose goal is to wipe Israel off the map. The war against Hamas is not unjust, they say, but the way in which the war is now being waged cannot be defended any more.
It is also a general phenomenon that criticism has begun to be directed at the influence that far-right parties have over the Israeli government’s policies. When the goal of the policy begins to be to expel the Palestinian people from both Gaza and the West Bank, European politicians can no longer stand by and applaud.
In general, more and more people are beginning to wonder what the purpose of the warfare in Gaza really is. Of course, Israel has the right to fight Hamas, but in concrete terms, the war also means that Gaza will become uninhabitable. The French newspaper Le Figaro reports that the Council of Europe has produced a report that speaks of ethical cleansing. What is happening is a great tragedy, and partly because we in Europe “let it happen”, which implies that we are not putting the pressure that would be needed for Netanyahu to stop the most violent acts of war.
And it is not just about the hostilities but also about Israel’s resistance to allowing humanitarian aid. This affects not only Hamas but also innocent civilians, women, children, the sick and the homeless.
In Spain, a meeting has been held between European and Arab nations who all have in common that they advocate a two-state solution. At a meeting on March 25, they strongly criticized Israel’s new offensive and spoke of Gaza as an “open wound in humanity”.
A Swedish right-wing politician and former defense minister, Mikael Odenberg, recently expressed what many old friends of Israel feel today. They have always stood up for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself against hostile neighbors, but that does not mean that they will support just anything. “Displacement/ethnic cleansing and war by starving the civilian population is not what I expected from the Israel I have admired for so long. It is not compatible with international law. It is a war crime.”
Supporting and admiring Israel does not have to mean supporting everything Israel does at every moment.