Members of the European Parliament had their first dedicated debate about the Israel-Hamas war in the plenary on Wednesday, October 18th, with several leftist MEPs accusing Israel of “war crimes” against Gaza, especially concerning the hospital that was hit by a missile the night before. Conservatives, in turn, called them out for ignoring evidence that contradicts their pro-Palestinian bias.
The Strasbourg plenary is known for high-running emotions, but Wednesday’s debate—lasting over three hours—turned out more explosive than usual. Of course, nearly all speakers started out by condemning the terrorist acts carried out by Hamas and offering sympathy to the victims, but many leftist MEPs almost immediately pivoted to attacking Israel and its actions at length.
Undoubtedly, the most divisive issue was the missile strike that hit the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City. According to the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry, the only initial source on the ground, the attack was carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and led to the deaths of over 500 civilians. Apparently, much of the European Parliament now takes whatever Hamas says at face value—despite Israel presenting multiple pieces of evidence to suggest it was a faulty Islamist rocket that exploded in the hospital’s parking lot.
“Over 500 Palestinians—men, women, and children—were murdered [at the hospital],” Iratxe García, the leader of the Parliament’s socialist (S&D) group stated. “We should remind Mr. Netanyahu that crimes cannot be fought with other crimes,” she added, accusing Israel of the senseless “murder” of 3000 civilians.
The chair of the liberal Renew, Stéphane Séjourné, expressed a similar bias when he condemned the “bombardment of the hospital,” before, ironically enough, calling for the chamber to stop being “partisan” on the issue.
The most outspoken, of course, were members of the far-left political group The Left. Some of them did not tiptoe around the issue, like the liberals, socialists, and greens, but went all in against Israel.
“A hospital was struck and destroyed. One-third of the people killed in the carnage were children. We have to call things by their name: these are war crimes, with Palestinians trapped under Israeli bombs,” declared The Left’s French co-chair Manon Aubry.
She then went on to accuse Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen of “usurping the European voice” by offering the EU’s unconditional support for Israel during her Tel Aviv visit last weekend and called the entire West complicit in the Israeli “oppression and colonization” of Palestinians.
Spanish communist MEP Manu Pineda—who was recently made president of the European Parliament’s delegation for EU-Palestinian relations(!)—went even further, but not before complaining that he wasn’t allowed to enter the plenary chamber in a keffiyeh, the black and white headscarf that is a major symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
“[Von der Leyen] went to Tel Aviv unconditionally supporting a genocidal regime, a regime that turned the Gaza Strip into something very similar to the Warsaw ghetto,” Pineda said, before turning to propagate the unconfirmed hospital narrative, which is ironic given that he’s a member of the parliamentary committee against disinformation. “Yesterday it got even worse,” he said, “[Gaza] has now become an extermination camp!”
Fortunately, some conservative MEPs were there to remind their colleagues that there’s no proof of these allegations, and all existing evidence supports the opposite narrative.
“We have seen the worst killing of Jews since the Holocaust, and this has triggered a war. And now some people are now complaining about the effects of that war and blaming the Jews. Once again, they lie in this chamber, they accuse Israel of things that others have done,” Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch (ECR) said.
He also called out the Commission’s decision to triple the EU aid to Gaza, at least part of which will inevitably end up in Hamas’ hands. Billions have been sent by Europe and the U.S. to Gaza in the past decades, Tertsch added, “but all they have done is to build a cesspit of hate, weapons, and destruction.”
The most outraged by the apparent disinformation, however, was Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers (ECR), who specifically called out some of his leftist colleagues—such as Manu Pineda and the Swedish social democrat Jamal el-Haj—for openly “fraternizing with Hamas” yet being allowed to stay in the European Parliament.
Weimers then went on to address the hospital bombing, saying that Aubry and her comrades are deliberately “ignoring evidence that says it was the Palestinian Islamic Jihad that fired that rocket that hit the hospital.”
If those on the Left do not want to be associated with antisemitism, terrorism, and cynical electoral politics, they need to stand unequivocally with Israel against Hamas.
