For the first time since Israel's assault on Gaza began on October 7, the European Parliament called for a cease-fire Thursday—but not without significant conditions that critics said strip the resolution of all meaning.
The measure passed 312 to 131, with 72 abstaining.
Instead of endorsing an unconditional cease-fire, the text backed "a permanent cease-fire and to restart efforts towards a political solution provided that all hostages are immediately and unconditionally released and the terrorist organisation Hamas is dismantled," as Agence France-Presse reported
"It is not a call for a cease-fire. It is an open-ended license for genocide, and will be understood by Israel as such."
The Members of European Parliament (MEPs) expressed sorrow over all civilian deaths.
"While condemning in the strongest possible terms the despicable terrorist attacks committed by Hamas against Israel, they also denounce the disproportionate Israeli military response, which has caused a civilian death toll on an unprecedented scale," the parliament said in a statement.
Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel killed about 1,100 people and resulted in the taking of 240 hostages. Israel's bombardment and invasion of Gaza has now killed 24,620 people and wounded 61,830,
according to Thursday's update from Gaza's Ministry of Health.
The resolution also called for humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, restarting the peace process with a goal of implementing a two-state solution, ending Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and accountability for all who carried out terrorist attacks or violated international law.
The vote comes the week after South Africa presented a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The text reiterates the E.U.'s support for the work of both the ICJ and the International Criminal Court.
The resolution was the result of a compromise between different parties in the parliament. The socialist, centrist, and green parties had all supported a resolution calling for a cease-fire, a political solution to the conflict, the release of the hostages, and the dismantling of Hamas,
Reuters explained. However, the largest party in the body—the European People's Party (EPP)—hesitated to join them and added an amendment that conditioned the cease-fire and restarting of the peace process on the release of hostages and the dismantling of Hamas.
"Sustainable peace cannot exist as long as Hamas and other terrorist groups hijack the Palestinian cause and threaten the existence of Israel, the only democracy in the region," EPP MEP Antonio López-Istúriz told the body on Tuesday, as Euronews reported.
However, Manus Carlisle, the policy and press officer for Green MEP Grace O'Sullivan, said on social media that EPP had "sabotaged" the resolution by making the cease-fire conditional on the ending of Hamas, "which arguably makes the call entirely meaningless."
O'Sullivan herself wrote on social media that EPP's amendment "hands Israel a blank cheque to continue the massacre for as long as they want."
"We need a braver E.U. than this," she said.
Independents 4 Change MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly denounced the text of the resolution.
"Reporting characterizing it as 'the European Parliament calls for a permanent ceasefire' is a misrepresentation of the text that has actually been passed," they wrote in a statement. "Under no circumstances should it be allowed to go unchallenged."
The MEPs pointed out that the parliament's conditions for a cease-fire were the same as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's.
"This is Israel's repeatedly stated pretext for genocide, plain and simple, adopted by the European Parliament," Wallace and Daly wrote in a statement. "It is not a call for a cease-fire. It is an open-ended license for genocide, and will be understood by Israel as such. The people of Gaza who are being murdered in their thousands by Israel are not responsible for the actions of Hamas."
"In every respect, this resolution is the opposite of what is needed," they added. "While the text claims to be a call for a cease-fire, it is a green light for butchery to continue."
The resolution as a whole is non-binding, Reuters explained, though European Parliament resolutions can sometimes have an influence on foreign governments. The final text will be sent to other E.U. institutions, E.U. members, Israel, Palestinian officials, Egypt, and the United Nations.
Previously, the parliament had called for a humanitarian pause to allow aid into Gaza, but had not gone further and demanded a cease-fire, according to Euronews. The leaders of E.U. member states have not agreed to call for a cease-fire as a bloc and still endorse "humanitarian pauses and corridors."
