Metsola’s lost opportunity in Israel

On her way to Jerusalem, Roberta Metsola might have been expecting a cantankerous reaction from far-right Knesset members, at the mere mention of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Political speeches have predictable story arcs, that will elicit vivacious reactions when certain buttons are pressed.

As president of the European Parliament, Metsola flies the flag of zealous yet non-confrontational ‘Europeanism’. Her address had to be book-ended by overtures to Israeli self-actualisation and idealism. And while her speech to the Knesset would not have afforded her much elbow-room to needle Israel on its illegal, destructive and harrowing occupation of the Palestinians, a certain degree of obsequiousness – mere weeks after the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – rankles.

Metsola arrived with an offer to strengthen links between the European Parliament and the Knesset, even though Israel had shamelessly blocked access to the chair of the EP’s delegation to Palestine. The EP president also pledged a deep bond with Israel, forged in the horror of the Holocaust; but the EU itself is putting Palestinian lives at risk, by delaying disbursement of €215 million in vital healthcare aid in occupied East Jerusalem - including life-saving treatments for some 500 cancer patients, and cash support to 120,000 Palestinians.

Roberta Metsola visits Jaffa’s old city with Dimiter Tzantchev, EU ambassador to Israel

Moreover, where Metsola spoke of the power of parliamentary diplomacy to bring about change, not a word was uttered about the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – a name that members of the Knesset should certainly have heard, on the lips of the EP’s president.

Israel is thus selectively excluded from the brave indignation EU leaders always show for revanchist and belligerent actors on its own continent. Yet Israel is a power that has demolished EU-funded Palestinian primary schools; that uses its military to forcibly move out Bedouin communities – such as the Humsa Al-Bqai’a community near Jordan, which is supported by EU humanitarian aid – and then blocks access for international observers from the diplomatic and humanitarian communities.

One wonders how Europe’s renewed discovery of its global democratic role, in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, suddenly appears fragile in the face of the humanitarian tragedy and illegal occupation of Palestine.

It is hard not to frame Metsola’s address to the Knesset through the integrity she is imbued with, as a fighter for the rule of law: consistently calling out criminals in her home country, and now even war criminals on the international stage. Can this be done selectively, however? It is in these fleeting moments that statesmanship shines before us: in such moments of boldness, where politicians punch through the staid air with a brave call for justice.

The Israeli military has now stated it will not investigate the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, with Israel’s Military Police Criminal Investigation Division claiming that an investigation which treats Israeli soldiers as suspects, would lead to opposition within Israeli society.

This adds further insult to the obscenity of the images that were broadcast live: where Shireen’s funeral was attacked by Israeli police and her pallbearers beaten up, nearly causing her coffin to fall. Even the hospital, where her body lay awaiting to be buried, was bombarded with tear gas.

The veteran reporter, who lived in occupied East Jerusalem, was a US citizen, having spent nearly three decades covering the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. And while the Abu Akleh family received reassurances from the US government that her killing would be investigated, Israeli impunity goes unquestioned – and an Israeli climate that places its army above suspicion goes tolerated.

This is clearly unacceptable. For a European bloc that is building its democratic project and single market on a rules-based society – where adherence to rule of law is conditional for the disbursement of shared financial resources – its own leaders must represent the indignation of those who witnessed the Israeli military’s brutality during Shireen’s funeral.

We know, from our own national experience, that had this happened to a European journalist, the outpouring of solidarity and condemnation would have prompted an entire examination of a country’s political system. Yet little is done to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses and crimes against Palestinians, even when this affects the humanitarian projects financed by European financial resources.

Lastly, Metsola spoke of Israel’s endurance, and that of Europe, as a reminder of the idealism the world needs, in its quest for peace. But this is the language of ambiguity: precisely the sort of words Israel enjoys listening to. Paying lip service to the two-state solution is increasingly becoming an absolution for not acting decisively, ignoring the reality of the apartheid state in which Palestinians in the occupied territories live in, where they enjoy less rights then Israeli citizens, and where Israeli-Arab citizens are increasingly alienated by the resurgent Israeli far-right that equates “Jewishness” with Israel.

What Israel does not want to hear is the West calling out its responsibility in targeting civilians and its ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Palestine is not a state because Israel denies its right to be a state – just as Russia denies Ukraine’s right to be a sovereign state. And if condemnation by the West is never followed by the diplomatic force or sanctions Europe deploys at home, then impunity in Israel can continue unabated.