Belgian politician on EU’s Gaza ‘double standards’: ‘In Ukraine, you called it genocide’

By Seyma Uzundere

ANKARA (AA) – In a clear double standard, EU politicians who denounced the bloodshed in Ukraine fail to see the genocide in Gaza, said a member of the European Parliament this week.

The Tuesday speech of Marc Botenga, an MEP from the Belgian Labor Party, on the deaths of children in Gaza, where Israel continues its attacks, went viral on social media.

Speaking at the EP, Botenga cited UNICEF’s assessment that there is a "war on children" in Gaza and that more than 7,700 children have so far been killed in Gaza.

"When this was happening in Ukraine, you were calling it genocide," Botenga said, slamming the EU's "double standards."

Criticizing MEPS who defend Israel’s actions, he said there is no “political difference” between them, but “simply a difference of humanity."

Botenga said that European politicians who support Israel applaud "the war carried out by Israeli rulers against the entire Palestinian people."

Botenga said the EU is complicit by continuing arms sales to Israel "I hope that one evening you will be able to look at your own faces in the mirror without shame," he told the assembled MEPs.

*Writing in Istanbul by Zeynep Cetin