The footsteps of demonstrators calling for action on Gaza filled the streets of Europe as 2024 came to an end. Unprecedented crowds gathered every week from London to Paris, Berlin to Rome, highlighting the sharp discrepancy between official government viewpoints on the Israel-Gaza conflict and popular emotion.
The burgeoning movement was personally seen by Sarah Martinez, a protest leader in Madrid. At a rally in December, she said, “We’ve never seen anything like this before,” as she handed out water to other protesters. “Students march with grandmothers. Employees take time off to participate in protests. The public conscience has awakened.”
The demonstrations gained momentum as casualty numbers in Gaza mounted. In Paris, police estimated over 100,000 participants at a single December protest – scenes replicated across major European capitals. Many protesters carried signs demanding immediate humanitarian access and an end to military operations.
Nonetheless, the majority of European governments continued to back Israel, resulting in what Palestinian scholar Kamel Hawwash refers to as “an unprecedented disconnect between public opinion and state policy.” Hawwash told Anadolu that although public pressure is still increasing, there are still many obstacles in the way of big policy changes.
“The gap between what people want and what governments do has rarely been wider,” noted Thomas Berg, a political analyst at the Copenhagen Institute for International Studies. “But foreign policy often operates under complex constraints that street movements alone cannot easily overcome.”
In shaping European responses, the importance of American influence is for Hawwash a necessary condition to add to every other condition. With Donald Trump once more at the gates of the White House, many European leaders seem hesitant to deviate from anticipated positions of the U.S. “Economic considerations, especially the threats of tariffs, weigh very heavily on decision-makers,” said Hawwash.
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Change demands more than external citizens’ forums. The plaints from international humanitarian organizations cite terrible conditions inside Gaza. Medical aid workers returning from that region have added dismal tales to parliaments in Europe as professional testimony to the public calling for action.
With national lines, local government organizations have sometimes stood apart. The Barcelona city council voted to suspend relations with Israel, while several Scottish councilors passed motions calling for a stop to the fight. All in all, they are mostly symbolic actions, but they express increased institutional support behind humanitarian concerns.
There are more drastic activities planned and announced by protest organizers for the future by the year 2025. ‘We’re going to start seeing more protracted protests, larger marches, more synchronised activities across different countries,’ Martinez said. “The pressure will continue to rise until such policies are altered.”
However, Hawwash does not seem overly optimistic about the near-term policy changes. “Public opinion is important but it is not sufficient on its own,” he noted. ‘Real change demands constant pressure in all three domains: the diplomatic, the economic, and the social.’
When Europe arrives at 2025, it thus looks to the prospect of even a wider gap between public opinion and political action. As humanitarian conditions weaken and protest actions intensify, European leaders are under pressure to find a potential for a European position within the heated response on Gaza.
The coming months may prove crucial as to whether this extraordinary outpouring of civil society activity can overcome the pluralism of interdependent links and political calculations that have so far preserved the status quo in the European capitals.
