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European nations are lining up behind a plan to recognize Palestine as a state at this week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York. Top officials widely condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, and some have even begun to call the war “genocide.”
But big talk has yet to lead to big action.
The European Union has proposed higher tariffs on Israeli goods, but it is not clear if that will happen. Other efforts to punish the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have stalled amid opposition, notably from Germany.
Actions by individual countries have also fallen short of the rhetoric. Attempts to funnel aid into Gaza have been limited, even as starvation grips the territory. And nations have been accepting only a trickle of asylum seekers from Gaza, with immigration often a domestic political flashpoint.
Belgium has more Palestinian asylum applicants than anywhere else in Europe, likely because of its relatively permissive immigration practices and large existing Palestinian community. But even there, applying for asylum can be difficult. Many hopefuls have been rejected this year. While Belgium has been evacuating its citizens and the family members of its own residents and refugees from Gaza, the country closed its evacuation list, which then numbered about 500 people, in April.
Bahjat Madi, 34, from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, has been in Belgium since 2022 and has been a resident since 2024. He is witnessing the fallout firsthand: Mr. Madi’s father is still in Gaza, he said, struggling to get out.
“I want to do anything for my father to be alive,” said Mr. Madi, who is bringing a court case to get his father’s visa application accepted remotely.
His father is seeking a humanitarian visa but is required to apply at the consulate in Jerusalem, which is all but impossible for someone trapped in Gaza. If he can get the visa, he might eventually be added to an evacuation list. It is a long shot and could take years.
“I want to talk to myself at night and say, ‘I do my best,’” Mr. Madi said. “But it’s not enough.”
For policymakers, the question is whether Europe will turn words of condemnation and concern into more powerful action. European public opinion has turned against the Israeli conduct of the war, but longstanding alliances and fraught political histories have kept nations like Germany and Italy from supporting major action.
“I haven’t seen any moment where such international momentum has built up in such a short time, so I think there’s a real opening,” said Kristina Kausch, deputy managing director for the German Marshall Fund South, a think tank focused on international relations. “But we will have to see what tangible commitments come, beyond the wording.”
“This is not only about Palestinians,” she added. “This is about whether the West, and Europe, can uphold international law and uphold multilateralism.”
Luxembourg announced last week that it would join Belgium, Britain, and a raft of other nations in recognizing a Palestinian state at the U.N. meeting in New York, a push spearheaded by President Emmanuel Macron of France that is meant to increase pressure on Israel. Last Tuesday, a United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians, a topic poised to be prominent at the U.N. meeting. Israel calls such an accusation “distorted and false.”
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A rally in Brussels this month in support of Palestinians. European efforts to punish the Israeli government for its actions in Gaza have stalled amid opposition, notably from Germany.Credit…Marius Burgelman/Belga, via Agence France-Presse
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