Will Luxembourg sanction israel for its war crimes?
by Gabrielle Antar & Natalia Dembowska
On July 2, Luxembourg will vote on whether to sanction israel based on its war crimes and violations of human rights and international law in Gaza. In the West, many feel uncomfortable to take a stance, afraid to say the wrong thing, confused by polarising opinions in the media, and unfamiliar with the region’s complex history. Yet, almost a year ago on 24th July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is unlawful under international law. On 21st November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, among which feature starvation as a method of warfare, persecution, murder, and genocide. If so, how is Luxembourg only voting on this resolution now? And what about the rest of the EU? How can someone violate international law and get away with it?
The confusing feelings and ignorance surrounding this conflict come from a lack of information and/or misinformation. Many Europeans are not familiar with what the infamous “Israel-Palestine conflict” entails, mislabelling it now as “Israel-Hamas” war. The latter term was coined by the Western media along with the preconception (now long proven to be false) that the entire “conflict” started on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked israel by kidnapping its people. Conflict suggests that it’s double-sided and insinuates the equal involvement of Palestinians. In reality, the events of that day were not only inaccurately shared on the day itself (which continued during the following days of coverage), but were also known by the israeli government in advance. These stories were debunked by reports of reputable outlets such as the New York Times. It was proven that not only the events of that day were presented as isolated from the history of the region, but also that they were fabricated to be used as an excuse to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people by starving and exterminating them, including women, infants, and children. It is essential we do not close our eyes to the factual, confirmed information, as the misinformation around this can trick many to think this is a double-sided war between two countries that fight each other and cannot find a solution - which is not the case.
It’s essential to discern between opinions and historical facts. In 1920, the British Empire occupied Palestine and established what it called “Mandatory Palestine”, in the location of a highly significant region for Abrahamic religions - the “Holy Land” (the geographical area in the Middle East in the Southern Levant region). The drastic rise of antisemitism and the extermination of Jewish people during World War II gave space and justification for zionism to develop and intensify, forming itself into a widely spread sensibility and culture followed by many as a direct response to Nazi fascism. israel declared its independence in 1947 as the “Jewish state” by violently occupying the Palestinian land and murdering its people, which was followed by attacks from neighbouring states. In Arabic, this period is known as the Nakba (Catastrophe), marked by violent displacement, suppression of Palestinian culture, and ethnic cleansing in the region.
The history of this region is complex. The involvement of the British Empire has definitely stirred a lot of conflict among the neighbouring Arab countries, resulting in multiple wars and lots of casualties over the past 78 years. Upon the UN’s proposal of partitioning the Palestinian land and recognising israel as the Jewish state, the conflicts between Jews and Arabs in the area intensified and escalated to the level of civil war. The armistice in 1949 made israel gain more territory than was previously decided upon by the UN. There was no partition, as the rest of the territory - Gaza and the West Bank - were taken over by Egypt and Jordan. Over the next decades, more Jews moved to israel, its ties with the West intensifying. And just like that, the very people who were ethnically cleansed in Europe just a few years (some months) before, came to Palestine to do the very same thing to the indigenous people on the basis of a religious document written two thousand years ago.
As you can see, there is a history behind the israeli violence, not a very long one, but still 77 years old, not 2. This did not start on October 7, 2023, with many past conflicts, attacks between different countries, as well as major uprisings by the Palestinian people (the First Intifada in 1986, and the Second in 2000). The general narrative of October 7th in the West suggests something completely different, and for someone who doesn’t know anything about this history, this sort of phrasing can be very dangerous. After reading the news, a Western person is likely to think that Palestinians are terrorists and israel was forced to attack them on the basis of self-defence. This turns the oppressor, the coloniser, the predator, into a victim.
Let’s take a second to examine these words, the words that many have heard before but not many understand correctly: “zionism” and “antisemitism”. Antisemitism is defined as the prejudice and discrimination against Jewish people. It pre-dated the World War II, and was already present in Ancient Greece and Roman Empire, with many examples present throughout Middle Ages and Renaissance, such as persecutions of Jews during crusades based on Christian beliefs that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus or the ban for Jewish people to settle in Prussia set by Frederick II in 1744. But its most infamous form took place in World War II when nazism under the dictatorship Adolph Hitler was used as an example to exterminate the Jewish people, and anyone else who did not fit into the “Nordic Aryan master race”.
Zionism originated in the late 19th century in the area of Central and Eastern Europe. It’s an ethnocultural nationalist movement - a form of nationalism in which nationality is defined by one’s ethnicity. Said ethnicity is applied as a reference of comparison to judge other cultures, practices, and beliefs (rather than using the standards of the cultures in question). Hence, ethnocentric cultures are nations defined by a shared heritage, language, faith, ancestry, and the necessary exclusion of anyone else who doesn’t belong to their group, as well as their classification as second-rate citizens. A well-known example of an ethnocentric culture rise in Europe is in fact the aforementioned nazism. It’s one of the fascist ethnocentric ideologies that were on the rise between World War I and World War II. In nazism, the ethnocentric culture is that of a “Nordic Aryan master race”. In Zionism, the ethnocentric culture is that of Jewish people. Let’s highlight: this is not a comparison of two ethnocentric ideologies; these are two well-known and most recent examples of what the definition of that word is. However, you can see through the reports of institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights that Palestinians within the “Israeli” territories have fewer rights and are considered second-class citizens compared to their Jewish counterparts.
These two ethnocentric ideologies seem to be very different from each other, as nazism focused on Aryan culture being the prevailing ethnicity, is infamous for exterminating many, but most specifically the Jewish people, while for zionism’s central ethnicity is that of the Jewish people. The Holocaust remains the biggest documented genocide in history, with the highest estimated number of killings being 12 to 17 million people, including 6 to 7 million Jewish people. Nonetheless, it is important to understand the complexity of what follows. After the liberation following the end of World War II, many Jews attempted to go back to their homes and were met with refusal and violence. Their homes were occupied during the war, and although nazism was defeated as the prevailing ideology and active practice, many were still prejudiced against Jews and did not want to give them back their properties that they managed to occupy during their fleeing in fear of extermination. Jews made up almost 25% of all the displaced people after the concentration camps stopped. It is in this setting that the Jewish people organised self-government, including efforts to educate and rehabilitate the community. Not to mention that European countries were reluctant to accept Jewish immigrants. Hence the very same people who were just exterminated by nazism were forced to find a land of their own, and due to the continuation of antisemitic sentiment even after the World War II ended (and under the British influence and its seize of Palestine as a colonised territory), it was decided that this land will be Palestine, as it is in actuality their land, the Jewish land, the Holy Land.
We need to be careful and understand why this happens the way it does. We cannot view our unwillingness for innocent people dying in Palestine at the hands of the israeli state as antisemitism. We just cannot, it is extremely offensive to the Jewish culture and what Jewish people have been through for centuries. We need to be aware that what happens between israel, the US, the UK, and the EU is not normal and does not benefit their people. It is not in our best interest to displace and exterminate indigenous populations, to further inequality, to mess with the heads of entire populations by diffusing misinformation in popular media outlets. The actions of our decision-makers do not reflect our votes, our desires, and our needs. Many of us do not know much about politics, discouraged to even read the news. That’s why this concerns you - because Palestine is a symbol of much wider oppression that is so telling of Global apartheid. Global apartheid meaning Global North engaged in racialising, segregation, controlling, exploiting, and capitalising its own populations, and most of all the Global South. Because your taxes fund the arms that kill these and many other people.
For far too long, israel’s impunity and failure to uphold international law have undermined the very principles upon which the United Nations was founded. Since October 7th, the Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates that over 56,000 people in Gaza have been killed — nearly half of them children. The true toll is likely far higher. According to The Lancet, indirect deaths in war zones often outnumber direct casualties by a factor of three to fifteen. Based on this, the total number of deaths attributable to the conflict may reach up to 186,000.
Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, has estimated the death toll could be as high as 335,500 — roughly one-seventh of Gaza’s civilian population. To put this in perspective, that’s equivalent to half the population of Luxembourg.
israel’s ongoing violations of international humanitarian law include the systematic denial of access to adequate food, water, and medical care. In recent weeks, attacks have repeatedly struck humanitarian sites, killing scores of civilians—often after israeli forces have opened fire on crowds seeking aid. These massacres have become a near-daily occurrence.
People from the Middle East have, for a long time, been represented as hated archetypes and nameless brown “terrorists”. Hollywood has been successful in representing the illusion that every Middle Eastern person is a threat. You can see these examples throughout infamous shows and movies, such as Grammy and Emmy award winning film, Homeland, the desert villains in Iron Man, American Sniper (where every person, whether father, woman or child is a terrorist), or Aladdin with one of its opening lines being: “Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home”. These are just some examples of how normalized the dehumanization and vilification of a people are.
It is not the first time that Luxembourg has been complicit in colonization and apartheid. Luxembourg has participated in the ruthless colonization of the Congo and acted in favor of South African apartheid (link both articles on luxtimes). When Russia started attacking Ukraine, there was no hesitation in applying sanctions on a country committing war crimes. However, when it comes to the death of Palestinians, those same standards have not yet been applied. For example, Luxembourg continues to house companies that have been complicit in the genocide. In 2023, NATO signed a 5-year contract with Elbit, an israeli arms and military technology company. It works with the israeli army, which has used its resources to do unimaginable damage to the occupied Palestinian territories. Elbit surveillance equipment has also been used to reinforce the illegal wall erected on the West Bank. Elbit now has a technical support and maintenance center at the NSPA site in Capellen, Luxembourg.
“Sanctions are an instrument to prevent conflict or respond to emerging or current crises, and to promote peace, democracy, respect for the rule of law, human rights and international law,” says the EU Council’s webpage. Sanctions have also historically helped bring about the end of apartheid in South Africa. Therefore, sanctions are one tool that allows countries to take a position without having to use force. And, as a signatory of the Genocide Convention, Luxembourg should prevent (Art.1) and punish (Art.2) genocide. This is why applying sanctions would be an action in respect to the Genocide Convention.
On July 2, the Parliament will vote on a petition, with 4768 signatories, calling for the sanctioning of israel. “The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court formally used the term war crimes. Luxembourg has previously sanctioned other states for similar violations. To remain consistent with its commitment to peace and justice, it cannot make an exception for Israel,” the petition said.
“As israel is trying to drag the West into WWIII with Iran, Luxembourg has to decide: is it ready to turn the page and help build a world in which we can all prosper [...] Luxembourg’s history of occupation should serve not only as a reminder of the past, but as a guide for moral responsibility today,” says a statement released by the Megaphone collective.
edited by Jessica Lentz & Tomas Einarsson