Your silence is not neutrality': MSF accuses European governments of enabling atrocities in Gaza
DaysofPal – Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) has issued a scathing condemnation of European governments over their role in the devastation unfolding in the Gaza Strip.
In a dual communication, a formal press release and an open letter to European leaders, the medical humanitarian organization accuses the European Union and its member states of hypocrisy, moral failure, and direct complicity in Israel's war on Gaza.
More than eight months into Israel's military campaign, MSF warns that Europe's continued support has deadly consequences for civilians and that the continent's moral standing is being eroded by its failure to uphold basic principles of international humanitarian law.
'You have watched Israel obliterate a health system you helped build,' the open letter states.
'You have witnessed your own citizens and staff being killed, detained, and tortured. You have seen hospitals bombed, ambulances destroyed, and entire families annihilated. And yet you continue to back this war politically, financially, and militarily.'
A war waged with European support
MSF emphasizes that more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, the majority of them women and children. The group describes a landscape of catastrophic destruction: hospitals systematically targeted, medical staff killed, patients operated on without anesthesia, and children undergoing amputations without painkillers.
In its press release, MSF accuses Europe of trying to separate its humanitarian efforts from its political and military alliance with Israel, a contradiction MSF calls untenable.
'How can you send aid with one hand and supply the weapons that destroy it with the other?' the statement reads. 'How can you express concern for civilian lives while criminalizing and defunding the very organizations trying to save them?'
MSF facilities attacked, staff killed and detained
MSF directly accuses Israel of repeatedly targeting its facilities and medical teams. In recent months, MSF-supported hospitals have been shelled, convoys fired upon, and health workers detained. In at least one case, an MSF surgeon was arrested and reportedly subjected to abuse while in Israeli custody.
Despite having shared the GPS coordinates of its premises with Israeli authorities, the group says its clinics and convoys have been bombed, patients and staff have been killed, and entire medical operations shut down due to the attacks.
'Health care in Gaza has been brought to its knees,' the group said.
MSF's sharpest criticism is aimed at European governments' dual role as self-proclaimed defenders of human rights and as supporters of Israel's military campaign.
The open letter and statement describe how EU states have continued to supply arms, intelligence, and diplomatic protection to Israel, even as the siege has caused famine, mass displacement, and the collapse of the health system.
According to MSF, Europe has criminalized Palestinian solidarity and slashed funding to important humanitarian partners under the pretense of counterterrorism and neutrality.
'You cannot continue to support this war and claim to stand for humanitarianism, international law, and human rights,' the open letter reads. 'Your words of concern are meaningless when your actions enable the killing of civilians and the destruction of a health system.'
A Call for Immediate Action
MSF is urging European leaders to take concrete and immediate action to end their complicity in the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. This includes suspending all political and military support to Israel, demanding a permanent ceasefire, and ensuring the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the population under siege.
The organization also calls on European governments to uphold international legal accountability by pursuing justice for attacks on civilians and aid workers, including those targeting MSF staff and facilities.
'Your silence is not neutrality,' the letter states bluntly. 'It is a green light for the continuation of mass atrocities.'
MSF argues that European governments cannot maintain credibility as defenders of the rules-based international order while facilitating the destruction of Gaza and punishing those who speak out against it.
'You say you are committed to humanitarianism. But your inaction and your double standards are contributing to the erosion of that very system.'
The letter ends on a sobering note, warning that the world is watching not just the destruction in Gaza but also Europe's complicity in it. The longer European governments remain passive or enabling, MSF says, the greater the cost, not just in Palestinian lives, but in the collapse of a global moral and legal framework.
'We ask you to act,' the letter concludes, 'not only because of what is happening in Gaza today, but because of what it means for all of us tomorrow.'
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=64912
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