‘The battlefield is Palestine’: Israel’s war hangs over European elections | Election News

Brussels Belgium – European Parliament elections traditionally focus on issues such as the cost of living, agricultural policies, climate change and the European Union’s migration policy.

But as the continent prepared for this week’s critical votes, a new issue came to the fore – Palestine.

How EU politicians are approaching Israel’s war in Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank and the future of Palestine has become a central theme driving political discourse and voters’ choices in the 27-nation bloc.

“Personally, I understand this [Palestine] as a crucial factor that allows voters to see the true colors of the parties they support,” said Maruska, who has Slovenian-Italian roots and will vote in this year’s EU elections for the first time.

“I will vote for Germany and there is only one party that defends the cause – MeRA25,” she added, referring to the pro-Palestinian left-wing European political group.

For Thomas Maddens, a filmmaker and activist based in Belgium, Palestine is a subject of colonial dynamics that, according to him, politicians in Europe should address in light of the continent’s history.

“For me, if you can’t get Palestine right, I’m not going to vote for you,” he told Al Jazeera.

Around 373 million people can vote in the elections that take place from Thursday to Sunday. They will elect 720 members of the European Parliament. In addition to playing a crucial role in defining EU policies, these legislators also elect the bloc’s main leaders, such as the head of foreign policy and the president of the European Commission.

Marc Botenga, from the left-wing Workers’ Party of Belgium and an EU lawmaker campaigning to take his seat, said: “As I traveled around the country to campaign, I saw people talking about classic election issues like purchasing power, climate change and migration. But this year, discussions about Palestine have been a central theme.”

He added: “I think EU citizens have seen how establishment politicians really like to talk about Ukraine and say how much the bloc really needs to support Ukraine, give them weapons and money to win the war. But then, with Palestine, there has been a certain degree of hypocrisy and double standards. People want this to end. Therefore, the way politicians approach Palestine will influence the European elections.”

Johannes Fehr, one of the leading German MeRA25 candidates, said many Europeans want to be on the right side of history as they vote this year.

“Many people want their EU leaders to stop supporting the genocide in Gaza, as well as the possibility of voting for a truly international option that represents not just people from one country, but everywhere,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We are a pro-Palestine party and in Germany we have seen a lot of resistance from basically all the main parties, from the Palestine Congress to our Free Palestine posters that are constantly torn down and even burned. But we won’t give up.”

‘Europeans better represented by Macklemore than by the European Commission’

The war in Gaza and tensions in the West Bank have caused millions of people in the EU and around the world to protest for months for a ceasefire.

In Brussels, even diplomats and employees of EU institutions took to the streets.

“It is quite unusual to see civil servants protesting in this way,” an EU official told Al Jazeera. “But it’s hard to ignore the sickening horror of what Israel is doing in Palestine.”

The conflict, as well as the recognition of Palestine as a state, have become a kind of litmus test for the European elections, according to a European Parliament official.

“Candidates who talk about human rights and climate justice in their campaigns but remain silent on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza reveal inconsistencies in his political agenda and prove that [the EU] are still far from addressing the intersectionality of social, civic and environmental rights,” the official told Al Jazeera.

“Ukraine was an easy moral victory for European centrist politicians. They were happy to criticize the war crimes of a belligerent neighboring power when it was Russia. But when it was Israel that was killing civilians, suddenly they couldn’t find their voice,” said another EU official.

“Europeans are better represented by Macklemore than by the European Commission.”

At least 36,586 Palestinians have been killed and 83,074 injured in Gaza since October 7 in Israel’s attack, by far the deadliest war against the enclave.

The campaign began after Hamas, which rules Gaza, drastically escalated the historic conflict by launching incursions into southern Israel, during which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken prisoner.

The European Parliament called for “an unconditional ceasefire” and for Israel to open all humanitarian aid crossings into Gaza.

Meanwhile, EU members Spain, Ireland and Slovenia announced their decisions to recognize Palestine as a state.

“Foreign relations are often a political football in the EU parliament. Political groups such as Spanish right-wing politicians often bring Latin American countries onto the European Parliament’s agenda as a way of trying to embarrass the Left and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats [S&D] party. But over the past few months, the battleground is increasingly Palestine,” an EU diplomat told Al Jazeera.

“After the elections, I don’t think it will be a case of ‘I am Israel, you are Palestine’, but rather of politicians who are in favor of international law versus those who are willing to defend genocide,” the diplomat added.

EU lawmakers currently sit in parliament as seven political groups – the S&D, the European People’s Party (EPP), Renew Europe, the Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the Identity and Democracy (ID) and the Left.

According to Hussein Baoumi, foreign policy advocate at Amnesty International, politicians from left-wing parties have spoken openly about Palestine in election campaigns.

Meanwhile, EU lawmakers belonging to right-wing political groups have taken a cautious stance or refrained from commenting on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“If we look at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s campaign video, it is clear that she is trying to distance herself from the war in Gaza and has not published any photographs of her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials,” he said. to Al. Jazeera.

“However, for voters on the continent, although the Palestine factor is important, domestic issues such as the cost of living and Russia’s war in Ukraine are more urgent. The war in Gaza will neither make nor destroy the European elections”, predicted Baoumi.

But for Marco, a voter in Belgium, “Europe’s legitimacy and credibility are at stake.”

“Good luck explaining to voters why we need to support Ukraine’s right to self-determination while denying the same right to Palestinians and arming the oppressor. This kind of double standard is hard to ignore,” he told Al Jazeera.