European values abandoned for Israel
Abdolreza Faraji-Rad
International affairs expert
Europeans have adopted a contradictory policy in the face of the recent Middle East clash. On one hand, the policy conflicts with the professed values of European countries regarding human rights, and on the other hand, it conflicts with their positions regarding the Ukraine War.
European countries, like the United States, strongly condemned Hamas’ attack on occupied territories but remained silent in the face of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, even supporting Israel’s mass killing policy. Some European leaders and officials visited Tel Aviv to show support for Netanyahu, despite his inhumane actions against the people of Gaza, which range from cutting off water and electricity to bombing hospitals, mosques, churches, and the massacre of women and children.
Europeans not only remained silent in the face of atrocities on this scale, but some European officials also justified this massacre, which indicates a significant contradiction in their positions. They claim to uphold human values and human rights in the world, but now, their biased positions against Israeli crimes have dealt a major blow to the European values of human rights.
These positions of the Europeans are also in contrast to their entirely different stance on the Ukraine conflict. Even their own media has repeatedly pointed out to European leaders that they labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal but ignored the massacre of around 10,000 people in Gaza at the hands of Israel and Netanyahu. A question arises here: Why did both Europe and the United States choose Israel over their professed fundamental Western values such as human dignity and human rights? It seems that both Europe and the United States felt that the existence of Israel was in danger.
The European people quickly became aware of this contradictory policy and reacted to it. In many European cities, large protests were held in support of the people of Gaza, which, in fact, turned to openly protesting their governments’ policies. These people did not expect their governments to be so indifferent to the massacre of the people of Gaza — referred to as the second Holocaust by some media — and the violation of European values.
Europe and the United States preferred to support Israel over their self-professed values of human dignity and human rights. Therefore, one should not expect any other government or nation to take their claim to promote or defend human rights seriously anymore. This is a great embarrassment for European governments.