GA 2025 Motions: An EFAy that strongly supports the Palestinian people and condemns the genocide that Israel is committing across the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

Since 7 October 2023, we have seen a new escalation in an old conflict, the increase in tension and armed activity between Palestine and Israel, which we must know how to contextualise and frame. What is happening across the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not an isolated nor conjunctural event but, is part of a broader strategy aimed at annihilating the Palestinian people that began under the British Mandate for Palestine and worsened under the State of Israel’s formation. 

EFAy stands in solidarity with the Palestinians’ struggle for self-determination but unequivocally condemns the brutal terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on 7 October and the taking of hostages in which over 1,200 innocent people were murdered accounting for the biggest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. Noting that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation as recognised by the EU and UK whose goal is the complete eradication of all Jewish people – an atrocity that must be unequivocally challenged. EFAy also condemns Hamas’ human rights abuses against the people in Gaza as well as toward Israeli citizens – noting that the ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for subsequent Hamas leaders as well as responsible Israeli officials for crimes against humanity. 

Currently, upwards of 40,000 people have already been killed in this war, around 70% of whom were women and children, with many more suffering serious injuries and more than 2 million Gazans facing displacement. 

For 76 years, Palestine has been under occupation by Israel, which has prevented the existence of a Palestinian state, occupied approximately 70% of its territory since 1948 and subjected the civilian population to all kinds of mistreatment, sieges, rape, constant aggression, arbitrary arrests, police raids, destruction of houses and infrastructure and assassinations. We have therefore been witnessing ethnic cleansing for decades. Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has held Gaza and the West Bank under an illegal occupation, subjecting the Palestinian population to many kinds of mistreatment, aggression, arbitrary arrests, police and military raids and the frequent destruction of infrastructure. By constantly expanding the illegal settlements and maintaining the blockade on Gaza, Israel is breaking international law and it must be held to account. 

The reality is that none of the episodes of suffering that the Palestinian people have experienced are isolated events. The "Border Protection" campaign in 2014 was not, nor were the hundreds of assassinations committed since 1948, nor are the latest events. 

We must also denounce the positions that the major political powers — in this case the European Union and the United Kingdom — are maintaining with regard to the conflict. It is unacceptable that the international community does not protect the rights of the people under attack and collaborates with Israel, withdrawing aid to Palestine, not doing enough to allow enough aid into Gaza, and refusing to sanction non-compliance with international treaties. 

Faced with this situation, it is essential to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, stand firm in the defence of the Palestinian civilian population, and international mobilisation is urgently needed to denounce Israel's every criminal attitude and to demand an end to the conflict. 

As EFA’s youth organisation, we cannot be equidistant in this conflict. To be equidistant means to take a stance — and not on the side of the Palestinian people. To date, the numbers are staggering: more than 40,000 people have been killed since October, including more than 15,000 children. According to the World Health Organisation, in these almost eighteen months of genocidal war, more than 100,000 people in Gaza have been killed, wounded or disappeared. 

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the resettlement of the territory by Israeli settlers, with the aim to fully annex it into Israel, would constitute Crimes Against Humanity and must be unequivocally opposed. The Gaza Strip belongs to the people of Palestine as set out in the internationally recognised 1967 borders – the people of Palestine must be allowed the right to return as enshrined under international humanitarian law. 

Us, as the youth of the European Free Alliance, we cannot remain impassive in the face of this massacre, brutal and bloody war. We are an internationalist organisation that defends the rights of peoples and minorities. We cannot lose this point of reference. It is basic to differentiate us from any other party or alliance and above all, it is about humanitarian justice. 

We should: 

• Reaffirm our internationalist will and show our full solidarity with the Palestinian people in their demand for peace, justice, and the establishment of a Palestinian state of their own, free from all occupation. 
• Call for the official recognition of the State of Israel’s actions toward the Palestinian people as an ongoing act of genocide as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 
• Strongly condemn the genocide that the State of Israel is committing in Gaza. 
• Respect the impartiality and authority that both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have to investigate and rule on all breaches of international humanitarian law 
• Ensure that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live peacefully and to self-determination under international law – but not at the expense of one another. 
• For all breaches of international law – including crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and crimes of aggression to be thoroughly investigated and rectified on all sides of the conflict. 
• Avoid being equidistant on all of the above.  
• Urge both parties to immediately release hostages and political prisoners. 
• Recall, today more than ever, that it is necessary to distinguish peoples from the criminal responsibility of their governments. This is the only way to build a bridge to a different future, based on mutual respect and the construction of a just and lasting peace. 
• EFAY condemns the inaction of European Union member states and the United Kingdom regarding ICJ and ICC rulings and investigations. For instance, France’s refusal to arrest Netanyahu’s plane while crossing French airspace is unacceptable and directly threatens the legitimacy of international law systems. 

Explanatory notes  

‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’: Consisting of the Gaza Strip and West Bank (including East Jerusalem) whose borders are internationally recognised and set out by the 1949 Armistice Agreements (known as the 1967 borders or ‘Green Line’). 

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:  

Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes | United Nations

IHL - Treaties & Commentaries - FULL  

Definition of War Crimes (ICRC): 

Customary IHL - Rule 156. Definition of War Crimes 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 

Statute of Rome (ICC): Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court