European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her team are facing increasing criticism over the controversial EU-US tariff deal agreed in July. I hope to see similar demands for accountability regarding the EU’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza, which many view as genocide. Such a reckoning is long overdue.
For nearly two years, I have watched with despair as European governments have done little or nothing while Israel has devastated Gaza through bombings, targeted strikes, and forced starvation following Hamas’s October 7 attack. The EU has many sanctions at its disposal that it still refuses to use—so many levers it refuses to pull. As Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for 32% of its total trade in 2024, the bloc holds significant influence. Yet at every meeting, EU leaders and foreign ministers have failed to secure the majority needed to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement, despite pressure from Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, and despite the EU’s own human rights experts indicating that Israel is violating the accord’s human rights obligations.
Even a modest proposal to partially suspend Israel from the EU’s €95 billion Horizon Europe research program—described by former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as a “bad joke” given the scale of Israel’s atrocities—remains blocked by Germany and Italy. Israeli exports to the EU actually increased in early 2024. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Berlin is now halting exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza, but this comes after nearly two years of uninterrupted military support: Germany alone approved €485 million in arms export licenses in the 19 months after October 7.
I understand Europe’s historical guilt, internal divisions, and deep economic ties with Israel. But it is impossible to ignore a more uncomfortable truth: Europe’s political and moral paralysis over Gaza is closely linked to the structural racism and violence that many Black, Brown, and Muslim Europeans face daily. It is clear to me that attitudes toward Gaza are shaped by an enduring colonial mentality embedded in the EU’s foreign, trade, and migration policies. The same dehumanizing logic applied to racialized Europeans and refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East is now plainly visible in the EU’s abandonment of the Palestinian people.
Europe’s domestic and external biases reinforce each other. This connection is not abstract—it is glaringly visible in the disparity between the treatment of Ukraine and Gaza. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine was rightly condemned by the EU, which imposed severe and unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, provided substantial aid to Kyiv, and repeatedly criticized other states for not following suit. Palestinian lives, however, are treated as expendable; their suffering is minimized while children are robbed of their childhoods. The suffering in Gaza is framed as a humanitarian crisis rather than a deliberate political choice, decontextualized, depoliticized, and sanitized. EU policymakers should listen when Palestinian-American academic Rashid Khalidi calls this conflict “the last colonial war in the modern age.”
The moral reckoning over the EU’s inaction on Gaza cannot be partial or piecemeal. It must include a recognition of how Europe’s past and present intersect, not only in Palestine but in many of its actions on the global stage. An EU that sees itself as a defender of international law and global justice should be willing to have these difficult conversations—in fact, it should encourage them. But largely Eurocentric EU policy circles see such discussions as divisive.
Without serious self-examination and long-overdue action, the EU’s glaring double standards will continue to undermine its democracy at home and its credibility abroad.
An update to the 2020 anti-racism action plan could be a starting point.A way forward is possible, but it requires that measures to address the EU’s current crisis of discrimination be grounded in a clear-eyed examination of Europe’s history—something long overdue. The EU’s anti-racism action plan has stalled, and the recent sidelining of Michaela Moua, the bloc’s first anti-racism coordinator, risks further weakening its commitment to equality in the years ahead.
Still, pressure is mounting—both from the public and from within EU institutions, including among senior officials. Ursula von der Leyen, often criticized for her strong pro-Israel stance, has spoken out against Israeli plans to occupy Gaza City. But this is far from sufficient. Critics are right to condemn the EU’s double standards, its disregard for international law, and the damage to its own credibility. Israel’s intended full-scale occupation of Gaza must be halted, aid must be delivered immediately, and a ceasefire urgently put in place.
A meaningful assessment of the EU’s failure to act on Gaza cannot ignore the structural racism and enduring colonial attitudes that continue to shape European policies. The situation in Gaza has torn away any illusions. EU decision-makers must finally face these difficult truths and take concrete steps to uproot them.
Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She leads New Horizons Project, a strategy and advisory firm.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the opinion piece The EUs inaction on Gaza has a name racism by Shada Islam designed to be clear and conversational
FAQs The EUs Inaction on Gaza Accusations of Racism
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is this article about
Its an opinion piece arguing that the European Unions hesitant and inconsistent response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not just poor policy but is fundamentally driven by racism
2 Who is Shada Islam
Shada Islam is a wellknown commentator and expert on EU affairs particularly focused on the Unions relations with the wider world including Asia Africa and the Middle East
3 What does inaction refer to
It refers to the EUs failure to take strong unified and decisive actionlike demanding a ceasefire imposing consequences or using its full diplomatic powerto stop the violence and alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Gaza
4 What is the main evidence for the racism claim
The author points to a double standard the EU was swift and united in its response to the war in Ukraine but has been deeply divided slow and much less forceful in responding to the crisis in Gaza which involves Palestinian lives
Advanced Detailed Questions
5 How does the author define the racism at play here
She suggests its not necessarily overt hatred but a more insidious hierarchy of human suffering It implies that European lives are valued more and warrant a more urgent and compassionate response than Arab and Muslim lives
6 Doesnt the EUs complexity and need for unanimity explain the inaction
While the EUs requirement for all 27 member states to agree on foreign policy is a major hurdle the author argues this is used as an excuse She contends that if there was a genuine political will to act based on equal concern for human life leaders would find a way to overcome these obstacles as they did for Ukraine
7 What specific actions does the author believe the EU should take
She implies the EU should use its significant economic and diplomatic leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire ensure humanitarian aid access and apply pressure on all parties to adhere to international law similar to its approach with Russia
