In Vienna, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and dozens of other European cities, demonstrations “in support of Palestine” were organised even before the Israelis responded the jihadist pogrom perpetrated by Iran-backed Hamas on October 7, while the corpses of more than 1,400 Israeli victims — tortured, raped, murdered and mutilated, babies decapitated or burned alive — were still warm. According to a JNS report:
“[T]he IDF on Monday [Oct 23] published two segments from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who participated in the massacre..
“‘The purpose of entering Israeli territory… was to kidnap civilians; they want as many hostages as possible,’ one of the terrorists revealed. He added, ‘They [Hamas] promised us that whoever brings a kidnapped person will receive an apartment and $10,000.'”
All the same, each and every one of these demonstrations in Europe was the scene of hate-filled slogans against Israel and Jews.
In Brussels, those slogans were shouted, and the atmosphere of violence and blood-lust was everywhere. Around me, surrounded by about 2,000 hate-filled demonstrators, a group of a dozen young Arabs were shouting “Death to the Jews” and “Death to Israel”, all the while exchanging knowing smiles and a few jokes. One of them ordered me to stop filming. I did.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a “constitutional basis”. He deplored the fact that in 2023 in Berlin, 80 years after the Holocaust, people, with complete impunity, are shouting “Death to the Jews” in the streets.
In the hours following the revelation of the butchery committed by Hamas, a wave of racist violence and attacks began in Europe, especially in France. Against Arabs or Muslims? Not at all. Against Jews, of course. In Europe, Jews are still the victims of hatred and violence. Apparently it is a way for our local pro-Hamas Europeans to celebrate the jihad pogrom of October 7.
Even though the media have been warning us for 30 years about the risk of violence against Muslims, in deeds and figures, our Jewish fellow citizens are infinitely more victims of violence and abuse than are Muslims living in Europe. Already in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg warned in The Atlantic: “In 2014, Jews in Europe were murdered, raped, beaten, stalked, chased harassed, spat on and chased for being Jewish.”
I feel a certain fatigue towards those who hold Israelis and Arabs equally responsible. Not just the European Left, which often no longer takes the trouble to hide its anti-Semitism. No, also those on the right who, out of cowardice or ignorance, tell us that Israel had it coming.
Let us look at a few facts: In 2005, seeing that the peace process had reached an impasse, Israel forcibly expelled 8,500 Jews from their homes in the Gaza Strip and bulldozed all their homes and communities. From that day on, there was not a single Israeli foot on Gaza soil and Gaza was “free.” Now, with not one Jew there, the Arabs of Gazan finally had total control of this beautiful land on the Mediterranean coast and could build the “Singapore of the Middle East“. A group of Americans even donated $14 million to buy 3,000 greenhouses from the expelled Jews and donated them to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to ensure that the Gazans could start with businesses there. Within days, they all had been looted and destroyed.
In 2006, elections were held in Gaza; the majority of Gazans voted for the totalitarian terrorist organisation, Hamas, whose openly stated goal was — and still is — the total destruction of Israel and the eradication of the Jews (Articles 7, 32).
In 2007, in response to Hamas’s smuggling in weapons to fulfil its genocidal mission, a blockade of Gaza was introduced by Israel and Egypt, in agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas had just persuaded to leave Gaza by killing hundreds of its members, some by throwing them from the top floors of high buildings.
Israel bears no responsibility whatsoever for the pogrom it suffered on October 7, the responsibility for which lies entirely not only with the psychopaths of Hamas but at least as much with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the puppet-master and aspiring hegemon of the region.
But let us return to Europe. In most Western European countries, support for terrorism and incitement to hatred and violence against non-Muslims have gone from being offences, to being support for and diversity and “multiculturalism”. 99% of those who commit these offences are never prosecuted, let alone convicted. Saying “Death to the Jews” and “Gas the Jews” has again become acceptable in the West.
No sane person, according to Thucydides, wants the worst form of war, which is civil war. It is for this reason that Europe needs to better understand what it has done to itself. Europe doubtless intended to “do good” but has demographically overwhelmed itself with people who Europeans may have imagined were fleeing tyranny, but who in fact were bringing tyranny with them. Three measures seem worth considering.
The first is a moratorium on immigration. Europeans will have the greatest difficulty integrating the populations already present in their countries. They may not even be able to. Many do not seem to want to integrate into European culture; they appear to want Europeans to integrate into theirs. It should by now be obvious that adding millions of newcomers every year will not solve the problem.
This would mean leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The extremist “open borders” jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court prevents any development of a rational asylum policy. In 2012, the ECHR enacted the so-called “Hirsi ruling,” named after the court case of Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy, which states that the European states have the legal obligation to rescue migrants wherever they find them in the Mediterranean Sea — even just 200 meters away from the Libyan coast — and ferry them to a European port, so that these people can claim refugee status.
When the Italian Navy intercepted illegal migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and sent them back to their point of origin in Libya, not only did the ECHR condemn Italy for this “obvious” breach of human rights; the Italians had to pay 15,000 euros ($17,000 at the time) to each of these illegal migrants in the name of “moral damage”. This kind of money is equivalent to more than 10 years of income in the countries of origin of Mr. Hirsi Jamaa and his companions: Somalia and Eritrea.
In 2016, Somalia’s GDP per capita was an estimated $400 ; Eritrea’s $1,300. Everyone, of course, heard about the Hirsi ruling. In Africa, especially, many understood that if they could reach the Mediterranean, European navies would now be obliged to ferry them directly to Europe. Before the Hirsi ruling, when people tried to reach the shores of Europe, hundreds every year tragically died at sea. After Hirsi, the objective is now simply to be intercepted. Consequently, hundreds of thousands attempt this journey — often with the help of non-governmental organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, whose activists wait for boats to appear at sea, just off the Libyan coast.
Finally, Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone — Muslim or non-Muslim — wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe.
Every “Death to the Jews” or “Death to Israel” uttered in Europe, particularly after babies tortured, burned alive and beheaded, women raped and more than 200 Israelis dragged back to Gaza as hostages on October 7, is an insult not only to Jews, but to us, what we are, our laws, our democracies and the will of the people.
(Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (Saint-Louis University of Louvain), a philosopher (Saint-Louis University of Louvain) and a doctor in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is the author of The Green Reich)
{From Gatestone Institute}
