Opinion
"Palestine, football and Europe’s selective conscience
Europe did not rediscover its soul when Palestinian blood was spilled. It did not find its moral courage when homes, hospitals, universities, archives and entire neighbourhoods were destroyed, or when families were displaced from one supposed safe zone to another, only to discover that safety itself had become a fiction. Europe watched, expressed concern, called for restraint and repeated its commitment to international law. It performed morality while refusing to exercise power.
Long before Gaza was devastated, Europe had already been warned that the system imposed upon Palestinians was not merely an unfortunate occupation awaiting a diplomatic solution. Palestinian, Israeli and international human-rights organisations including BADIL, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International had increasingly described it by its proper name: apartheid. The International Court of Justice reinforced this in its 2024 advisory opinion, finding that Israel maintained a near-complete physical and legal separation between Palestinian and settler communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, breaching Article 3 of the CERD—the provision prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid."
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260806-palestine-football-and-europes-selective-conscience/
#europe #gaza #football
