The silence and inaction of the EU authorities in the face of extreme famine and Israeli genocide will haunt us for decades and dwarf our position in the world.
We had written to those responsible for the media to say that this weekly column was taking a holiday, but faced with the daily vision of the images of what is happening in Gaza, faced with the horror of this slow and programmed slaughter of human beings, I could not resist the need to start writing.
I know that the role I have been entrusted with as director general of Casa África makes us look to the Sahel, to our West African neighbours and to the continent as a whole, but the sense of ethics and the horror I feel at every news item makes me want to write about it, about the fact that what we are witnessing will go down in the history books in the future as a moment of absolute failure of the European Union and its democracies, in which it is proving impossible to agree and demand that one country stop, to stop this senseless slaughter.
I return to the public space because I believe that we cannot afford to repeat history. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, one of the most atrocious episodes of the 20th century. While hundreds of thousands of people were massacred in this central African country, the world - including the West - looked the other way. Afterwards, we watched in horror and asked ourselves the same old questions: how was this possible, how did we not react sooner, how could we have done nothing? Today, faced with the terrible situation in Palestine, I wish I did not have to ask myself again whether we have not really learned anything.
For we understood many days ago that Israel's actions went far beyond avenging or arresting those responsible for the equally horrific massacres of 7 October, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and nearly 250 abducted.
Gaza today is a painful open wound for all humanity, a barbarism that tears at the soul and credibility of Europe. And I say Europe because even if Israel is solely responsible, with the complicity and applause of the madness that is currently ruling the United States, as a European I feel deeply ashamed of the passivity with which the European authorities are acting in the face of something so clear, obvious and clearly intended: the use of hunger as a weapon of extermination and social dismantling. This passivity will haunt us for decades to come and, moreover, dwarfs our role and capacity to influence the world. And that is very important.
It is unbelievable that in the year 2025 we are seeing images of emaciated bodies on the verge of starvation, and that we witness with normality how women and children queuing to get some water and hopefully some food are directly bombed or executed by snipers.
I was reading these days the words of the director of the World Peace Foundation, Alex de Waal, who said something as clear as "you can't starve someone by accident. You can shoot someone by accident, but with starvation you have 60 or even 80 days to make up for the mistake". This expert said that the tactic of not letting food into Gaza goes beyond pursuing individual death, it seeks to annihilate an entire community, to dismantle it, to destroy the meaning of its life as a group. No one doubts that food restrictions are genocidal in nature.
The figures we are seeing daily updates on Gaza are chilling. More than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed, including tens of thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them women and children. More than 17,000 children have been killed, representing 40% of all casualties. The UN has confirmed that 875 Palestinians were killed while searching for food and water as of July 2025. And among the victims, journalists have been systematically targeted, so that the world does not see and understand what is being pursued in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza's two million people are trying to survive these days in a critical situation. The famine is causing record levels of acute malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly, and preventable diseases that are spreading rapidly.
At the same time, there are hundreds of trucks with food, water and humanitarian aid materials blocked by Israel at the border points. In addition to the famine, remember, there is no progress possible for life in Gaza: housing, schools and hospitals have been reduced to ashes, with the eternal argument that they were hiding Hamas militants.
In the face of this humanitarian catastrophe, in the face of this televised genocide, the role of the European Union has unfortunately been irrelevant. As Josep Borrell himself has acknowledged, Europe has lost its soul in Gaza. "When the EU is not united, it does not exist", said Borrell, who criticised Europe for limiting itself to providing humanitarian aid as if what is happening in Gaza were a freak of nature.
The hypocrisy is palpable. The EU, which has acted with admirable speed and firmness in cases such as the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar or the invasion of Ukraine, has stood idly by in the face of Israel. The world is criticising us for having double standards, and rightly so. Moral blindness is an existential failure.
It is of small consolation, however, that Spain has raised its voice in the face of the barbarity that is taking place and has been one of the most active countries in the world on this issue. Spain has ceaselessly called for the search for peace and justice in the Middle East, and recognised the Palestinian state in May 2024. Furthermore, our Foreign Minister has joined the 'New York Call' to reiterate his unwavering commitment to the solution of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders.
A few days ago Macron (France) announced the same decision and a few hours ago we read that the UK is threatening to do the same if Israel does not immediately impose a ceasefire. Our Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has played a very active role at the United Nations this week, participating in the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, and calling for such basic things as Palestine being able to acquire full membership in the United Nations system.
I fully agree with Borrell when he said that what we are allowing today in Gaza, the conscious destruction of a society through hunger, "will set a precedent that will stay with us forever, will leave the EU's leadership and credibility in tatters, and will sow a future of instability and insecurity of which we are not yet aware".
Concerted and forceful diplomatic and humanitarian action is urgent and cannot be postponed. Europe must firmly demand an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional delivery of aid, and European leaders must make military, economic and political cooperation with Israel conditional on its demonstrable compliance with international humanitarian law, a complete cessation of attacks on civilians and hospital and educational infrastructure, and participation in a credible diplomatic track to bring an end to the violence. Perhaps one of the things we should demand of ourselves as Europeans is to be transparent about all the agreements we have with Israel and to quarantine them immediately. Not one more arms purchase, not one more sale, nothing. And to be absolutely scrupulous in that attitude.
It is clear that the conflict no longer makes any sense, beyond wiping Gaza off the map and culminating in the dismantling of Palestinian society, annexing the entire strip and, as Trump and Netanyahu seemed to announce at the time, selling townhouses to Israelis.
Enough must be said and the European authorities must be reminded that this passive stance in the face of Palestinian genocide will haunt us for decades to come. It is time for Europe to recover its soul, for its founding principles of peace, justice and respect for international law, the very principles on which it was founded, to prevail over paralysis and complicity. I have always been proud to be European, and I want to remain so.