Engagement with European Civil Society Organizations: Mobilizing the European Union for Peace in Palestine<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nWednesday, 6 May 2026<\/p>\n
Remarks by Dr. Shir Hever, Political Economist<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nYour Excellencies, esteemed guests, colleagues. Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to speak here.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAvi Bluth, chief of Israel’s central command, said “it’s a miracle that Palestinians are indifferent to the Jewish terror,” adding “We are killing like we have not killed since 1967.” This has been reported in the media and you may have heard it, but I want to clarify the correct translation from Hebrew. Bluth said that Palestinians are “indifferent” to the atrocities committed against them. I am certain no one here believes that a family can be indifferent to violence \u2014 to the killing and injuring of family members, the destruction of homes, the theft of land and property.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe fact that Israel’s military believes Palestinians are indifferent is a message to us: we have not done our duty to stop the aggression and protect the population. We have not succeeded in ending Israeli impunity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSpeaking here in Brussels, the seat of the European Union, I think it is important to note that civil society is disappointed with our leaders. Amnesty International, one of the most important civil society organizations, called the European Union the “chief of cowards” last week in Luxembourg.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI now want to turn to the title of this panel: “Individual best practices” \u2014 a title I think needs to be addressed critically. It has a double meaning: are the actors individuals who are held to perform best practices, or are actions broken down into individual acts which should themselves be best practices?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI reject both interpretations. Actors must act collectively, not as individuals. Action must be taken as part of a comprehensive strategy, not as a series of isolated acts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe responsibility to act is indeed individual. Every one of us has to ask: what can I do? How do I look at myself in the mirror, or explain to my children, what I did to stop a genocide? We cannot evade responsibility by shifting it to the organization we work for.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut to act means to act effectively \u2014 not to clear our conscience, but to do what we can to stop the atrocities, to hold Israeli criminals to account, to protect the rights of Palestinians from ethnic cleansing, from apartheid, from occupation, and from genocide.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCivil society is a collective that can effectively focus our efforts and achieve results. We act in unity to demand the implementation of international law, human dignity, and decency \u2014 to oppose Israel’s racist policies and Europe’s racist complicity with those policies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is the best practice? Collective action is the best practice.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n