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Kathleen Funchion MEP: An EU divided over the genocide in Gaza

For nearly two years, the world has watched as the people of Gaza endure a relentless, livestreamed genocide. Among the most vulnerable and impoverished populations on Earth, they have been bombed, starved, and systematically dehumanised, whilst much of the international community offer little more than empty platitudes about peace. Let’s call this what it is: a genocide, writes Kathleen Funchion MEP.

As an Irish member of the European Parliament, the divisions this genocide has exposed in the EU never fails to shock me. I was not naive, and always knew that Ireland’s own history of colonialism, degradation, famine, and displacement, offered us a unique insight into the Palestinian experience. I still did not expect the resistance to any meaningful action to bring about a sustainable ceasefire to be so resolute and heartless.

At the beginning of my term in office, I, with my Sinn Féin colleague Lynn Boylan MEP, opposed the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen for a second time as President of the European Commission, not least because of her record on the war in Gaza. Rather than using her office and the apparatuses that exist within the European Commission infrastructure to put the EU forward as a credible partner for peace, she has stood by and enabled the war crimes being broadcast onto phones and television screens.

As an MEP, I have consistently used every platform available to highlight the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. In June 2025, I directly questioned the European Commission about a phone call between Ursula von der Leyen and Benjamin Netanyahu. I reminded them that Netanyahu is the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), and asked whether this was acknowledged during their conversation. If von der Leyen is truly committed to upholding international law, then surely, she should have insisted that Netanyahu surrender himself to the ICC.

Moment in history

The blatant disrespect the Netanyahu regime has shown the EU institutions is another issue that we must call out. Earlier in the year, Lynn Boylan was deported from Israel as she was en route to attend an official European Parliament mission to Palestine. Boylan is serving as the chair of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Palestine – this highlighted the lack of respect the Israeli authorities have for democratic intuitions.
The recent hijacking of the Freedom Flotilla’s aid ship – where my colleague Rima Hassan MEP and other activists were kidnapped – was another example of Israeli cruelty.

In a speech I made to the European Parliament in June, I outlined that when future generations look back on this moment in history, they will not look kindly on the EU institutions. They will not look kindly on the President of the European Commission, who willingly takes phone calls from war criminals. They will not look kindly on the parliament, as there has been a failure to impose even the most basic of sanctions against Israel.

If the EU is serious about de-escalation and a ceasefire, it needs to send a clear message to the world that there can be no trade deals for war criminals and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement must be suspended with immediate effect. As of the writing of this article, we still have no EU sanctions on Israel, and the Israel Association Agreement has yet to be suspended.

The agreement requires respect for human rights and Israel has trampled that principle into the dust. Article 2 has been breached again and again, yet the EU hides behind process. The so-called “review process” announced is just a stalling tactic – one more month, one more season of starvation, one more window of cover for ethnic cleansing.

Action

As a human being, this can be both maddening and upsetting. That said, whilst it can all seem negative and that all of Europe does have a different view and perspective to Ireland, there are successes which offer us hope. As a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, I submitted key amendments to a committee opinion on the EU Disability Strategy, which explicitly recognises the plight of children in Gaza who have suffered amputations, and the dire circumstances faced by people with disabilities amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

It is my view that this opinion sends a clear message: disability rights are human rights, and the EU cannot ignore the suffering of disabled people – whether they are in Europe or in Gaza.

In Parliament, we will continue to fight for a ceasefire, and to demanded answers about EU funding flowing to Israeli companies through Horizon Europe – money that supports companies complicit in occupation and apartheid. Unfortunately, the Commission’s response is always the same: delays, obfuscation, and cowardice.

We must demand that humanitarian policies be genuinely principled – rooted in international law, shaped through a gendered and disability lens that recognises the unique suffering of women, children, and disabled people in war zones. The EU cannot claim to champion human rights while refusing to address the hell on earth in Gaza – the graveyard of children.

Too many lives have already been stolen. Too many children have died, Gaza has been reduced to ruins. The International community must act now.

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