After a series of pro-Palestinian moves by Japan, Switzerland, Russia and Spain on Monday, Belgium, Lebanon and the UK also joined the campaign against Israel’s five-months-long war in Gaza.
This Tuesday, like the day before it, was a day full of pro-Palestinian moves and policies taken by different governments around the world in opposition to the Israeli attacks against people in Gaza.
On Monday, Japan, Switzerland, Russia and Spain each issued separate anti-Israeli statements, announcing either cutting cooperation with Israeli military, summoning Israeli ambassadors, or continuing and even increasing financial aid to agencies that deal with helping Palestinian people.
Belgium
This Tuesday morning, the local government of the Walloon region in Belgium announced in a statement that it has decided to temporarily suspend two ammunition export licenses to Israel in support for people in Gaza who are under constant Israeli attacks for nearly five months.
According to a report by the local media outlet De Morgen, the decision was taken after several rights groups, including Amnesty International, called on the Walloon region’s prime minister, Elio Di Rupo, to cancel the weapons sales to Israel. The last time Walloon sent weapons to Israel was back in November this year.
Since the start of Gaza war on October 7, Belgium has been a harsh critic of Israel. A few days before Tuesday’s announcement, Belgium had summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest Tel Aviv’s bombing of a Belgian development agency building in Gaza City last week.
Belgium has also been among the countries that announced their continued support for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) even after a group of western states decided to cut their aids to the UNRWA last week. “Belgium will continue to help Palestinian civilians and ensure that humanitarian aid gets to them,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said last week.
Lebanon
Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said on this Tuesday that his country disagreed with what Israel and its western allies have demanded Beirut in regard to expelling Hezbollah from Lebanon’s southern borders, asserting that Beirut will not accept ‘partial solutions’ to resolving the cross-border conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
In an interview with Nida al-Watan news agency, Bou Habib said in this regard that western countries demand the retreat of Hezbollah for about eight to ten kilometers north of Litani, but this is a formula that Lebanon rejects. [Beirut] will not accept ‘partial solutions’ that do not bring the desired peace and do not secure stability but will lead to the renewal of the war again and again.”
The UK
As the latest case of anti-Israeli move by the authorities of states, it was Tuesday evening that a UK court ruled Professor David Miller, who was fired fro his job at the University of Bristol in 2021 for anti-Zionist views, can come back to work as his trial back then was discriminately and unfairly.
“Prof. Miller successfully claimed discrimination based on his philosophical belief that Zionism is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial, a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, alongside a finding of unfair dismissal,” the law firm said in a statement. The ruling in favor of his case against the university is being described as a landmark decision.
Rahman Lowe Solicitors, the law firm representing Miller, said the ruling was a “a landmark decision” and a “significant triumph,” paving the way for those who hold and express anti-Zionist beliefs in their workplace to be legally protected. Miller was dismissed from his position on January 2021 after he said Israel wishes to “impose [its] will all over the world.”
