Creeping censorship, corruption, authoritarianism, economic decline and support for war: these are five of the defining characteristics of the Von der Leyen era. Is it any wonder that internal opposition is on the rise?
“Europe will always be on the side of humanity and human rights.”
That was the message Ursula von der Leyen, the embattled President of the European Commission, sent in an internal Commission memo on Monday (Oct 24). Von der Leyen (whom I shall henceforth refer to as VdL) may somehow believe those words — after all, the Commission she fronts did pick up the “World Price for Peace and Freedom” just four months ago, even as it escalated its involvement in the Ukraine conflict as well as its largely self-maiming sanctions on Russia — but many of the staffers working for the Commission apparently do not.
In fact, VdL’s latest message of peace and love was widely construed as a desperate response to a barrage of internal criticism unleashed last week against her unbridled support for Israel and her “apparent indifference” toward the “massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip.” To make matters worse, VdL was breaching her mandate as president of the Commission when she made these comments. In a letter that accumulated 842 signatures, staff members of EU institutions accused VdL of giving “a free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime in the Gaza Strip”.
After roundly condemning Hamas’ “terroristic (sic) attack” against “helpless Israeli civilians, the loss of life and the taking of hostages,” the letter squarely took aim at VdL’s unabashed support for Israel’s war aims, which, as Yves recently averred, appear to consist of making Gaza uninhabitable:
“We equally strongly condemn the disproportionate reaction by the Israeli government against 2.3 million Palestinian civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip; an action that is considered by many observers as war crime (sic)… Notably, we are concerned by the unconditional support by the Commission you represent for one of the two points. This support is being expressed in an uncontrolled manner, e.g. EC buildings lit up with the Israeli flag.
We hardly recognise the values of the EU in the seeming indifference demonstrated over the past few days by our Institution toward the ongoing massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in disregard for human rights and international humanitarian law. We have just learnt that a hospital was bombed with many casualties. According to UNRWA statements, not a drop of water, not a grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel has been allowed into Gaza since the start of the Israeli operation, generating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
The letter warns that the EU is “losing all credibility” as well as its status “as a fair, equitable and humanist broker” while also damaging its international relations and risking the safety of EU staff. As if that were not enough, the letter also rips into VdL’s “patent” double standards over what is currently unfolding in Palestine and the events of the past 20 months in Ukraine. A perfect case in point: in October 2022, VdL tweeted the following message:
Russia’s attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes.
Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror.
And we have to call it as such.
By contrast, as the letter notes, VdL “completely ignore[s]” the almost identical actions taken by Israel against the Gazan people. In a speech last Thursday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington, she prioritized Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’ assault on October 7 while neglecting even to mention the two-state solution that forms a core part of many European countries’ position on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
One of the best critiques of VdL’s position on the conflict has come from Irish MEP Claire Daly. As she says, “she has no authority in foreign affairs matters” and “does not speak for the citizens of Europe”:
Damage Control
Now, VdL is trying to undo some of the damage she has caused, without changing her position much. In the internal message she sent out on Monday morning, to which the Spanish daily La Vanguardia has had access, she says the Commission regrets the loss of “all innocent lives in this conflict, of all faiths and nationalities” and claims that its services have been working “from the beginning of the crisis” to alleviate the suffering of “ALL” those affected by the indiscriminate terrorist attacks, both by showing solidarity with Israel and by tripling humanitarian aid to Gaza and supporting the creation of an air bridge to Egypt.
As La Vanguardia notes, those last two measures were announced last week by the EU’s executive branch after a week of intense criticism of VdL’s statements of support for the Israeli Government, which initially did not even include the condition that Israel’s response to the brutal Hamas attack, which left 1,400 dead, must be “in accordance to international and humanitarian law”.
For VdL, the damage may already be done…
Read the full article on Naked Capitalism
Nick Corbishley 