As bombs fall on Gaza, a semantics war erupts in Europe

Not everybody was convinced that pausing, once or several times, was the real issue: "One diplomat said they "didn't care" whether "pause" or "pauses" was in the official communique for the summit, but were concerned about handing Hamas an opportunity. "If the pause is too long, it will help Hamas to recover and attack again," they said.

Their impulse to press the pause button, whether once or repeatedly, is understandable. The European Union has been caught unawares by events, and there is discomfort with the way its Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, was so quick to visit Israel and support its right to self-defence, with no caveats regarding the siege it imposed on the Gazans, stopping the supplies of water and fuel.

Von der Leyen was not alone, however.

The Western powers were virtually unanimous in throwing their weight behind Israel in this way, without duly cautioning that the response should be proportionate and in keeping with the laws of warfare. President Biden's advice not to repeat the mistakes of America's 'war on terror' had an oracular quality. It was open to an infinite range of interpretations.

Given the immense military strength of Israel and the garrison mentality of its present leaders, this failure to warn, in the clearest manner, against an overreaction was, at best, rash.

Dangers of unconditional support

In view of the numerous previous bombardments of Gaza, it must have been obvious how dangerous such unconditional support might become, exposing the West to the charge of complicity.   

Read more: Catastrophe in Gaza and Western complicity

The danger has become very clear over subsequent days. Realising they had tied themselves to the consequences of Israel's actions, her allies began frantically fumbling to locate the pause button, or at least the 'pauses' button.      

There seems to have been coordination behind the scenes because the word 'pause' has also been adopted by the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak when calling for aid to be allowed through at the Rafah crossing.

Keir Starmer, his opposite number, and the man most likely to succeed him in Downing Street, has also discovered how careful one needs to be when offering support to the Israelis. In an interview for LBC on 11 October, he failed to condemn the cutting off of power and water to the Gazan population, insisting instead on Israel's right to self-defence.

Later, on a trip to Cardiff in Wales, he was accused of exploiting a hastily arranged visit to an Islamic centre. The imam was even said to have been unaware of who he was greeting.

But the main complaint seems to have arisen from a tweet the Labour leader released after the visit, which the mosque felt gave too rosy an impression of his reception there, downplaying the robust exchange of views.  

Elsewhere, there have been loud protests and even resignations by no less than 27 Labour councillors. One of these, Shaista Aziz, represented Labour in Oxford city council. She wrote in The Guardian on 24 October that she was horrified by the LBC interview, which she said had endorsed collective punishment of Palestinians. Later clarifications she characterised as an attempt to 'gaslight British Muslims.'  

From a selfish, electoral point of view, the timing of the events in the Holy Land could hardly have been more dangerous for Labour. Riding high in the polls, and collecting ever more improbable byelection victories, the last thing a government-in-waiting would have asked for was a return to the charge of antisemitism that bedevilled the party's fortunes under Jeremy Corbyn.

The right-wing press in Britain is constantly on the alert for such perceived backsliding. So, the approach has been classic Sir Keir Starmer: at all costs, avoid frightening the horses— shire horses with a record of voting Conservative, to be precise.

Thus far, over a quarter of Labour MPs have either said they want a ceasefire or signed a Commons motion calling for one, and discontent is likely to grow. On a recent visit to parliament, Palestine's ambassador, Husam Zomlot, received an ovation from the MPs present.

Other parties have not been so chary as the Labour leadership in their response.

The Scottish National Party, for example, which has no reason to fear the English press, has been unequivocal in its calls for a ceasefire. Its leader, Humza Yousaf, is a Muslim with relatives trapped in Gaza.

His mother-in-law, Elizabeth El-Nakla, made a tearful appeal for compassion from the midst of a warzone:

"This will be my last video. Everybody in Gaza is moving towards where we are. One million people have no food, no water, and still they're bombing them as they leave. Where are you going to put them? But my thought is, all these people in the hospital cannot be evacuated. Where's humanity? Where are people's hearts in the world, to let this happen in this day and age? May God help us."

Britain has seen demonstrations on the streets in support of Palestine, though the propriety of waving flags or even shouting the word 'jihad' has been a matter for fierce debate. In the latter case, the Metropolitan Police pointed out that the word had 'numerous meanings' and refrained from arresting people who shouted it.

The Home Secretary, meanwhile, has wondered out loud whether displaying Palestinian flags should be considered a criminal offence.   

Ireland protests

These qualms have not been so evident over in Ireland. On 22 October, the Irish Times reported that protesters marched through Dublin chanting, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Israeli ambassador: out, out, out!"

The event was organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign group, with representatives from People Before Profit, Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats present. Matt Carthy spoke for Sinn Féin and many of those protesting when he said it shouldn't be controversial to condemn a war crime "regardless of who it is that is carrying it out."

Earlier, speaking at the Green Party's national convention, their leader, Eamon Ryan, devoted the opening passages of his keynote address to the attack on Israel and the Israelis' response. Ryan began by condemning Hamas.

However, he also called for an immediate ceasefire:"We can deplore what Hamas did while at the same time understanding that there will never be peace unless the rights of the Palestinian people are also delivered upon."

"We were one of the first governments to call on the Israeli armed forces not to target civilians in Gaza as they hit back at Hamas. Such thinking comes from the lessons we have learned from our own troubles. The bombing of civilians is never justified and is never going to work."

It's possible that the reference to 'our own troubles' goes a long way to explaining the support for Palestine that Irish politicians and the public have demonstrated. For years, the country was afflicted with sectarian strife and thousands of innocent lives were lost.

Palestinians are readily seen as suffering the same oppression as the Irish suffered under the British, and as the Catholics in Northern Ireland later experienced under the Protestant majority there.

Thus, in 1980, Ireland was the first European Union member state to endorse establishing a Palestinian state. In January 2011, it accorded the Palestinian delegation in Dublin diplomatic status.

In May 2021, Ireland became the first EU member state to declare the building of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories as de facto annexation. However, its parliament rejected a proposal to expel the Israeli ambassador.

A spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, Lior Haiat, said it rejected this motion outright, complaining that Ireland's "outrageous and baseless" position regarding some Israeli settlements reflected a "blatantly one-sided and simplistic policy" and constituted a "victory for extremist Palestinian factions."

Undeterred by the likelihood of this reaction, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, stated during the debate on the issue that "we need to be honest with what is happening on the ground and call it out" as "de facto annexation." 

He emphasised that the Irish Republic was the first EU country to do this and that it was intended as a message to the global community.

It is yet to be seen whether the global community will heed messages such as this, or the growing demand for a ceasefire. After all, delegates to the UN have had ample time over the years to pause and contemplate Guernica, a silent witness to a 20th-century equivalent of Gaza.

Yet still, the bombs fall.