Sunday Summary - 25th of May 2025

Welcome, dear readers, to another round of the Sunday Summary. This week, I would like to guide your attention to the worsening situation in Gaza and the growing resistance towards the genocide committed by Israel. So please bear with me, we got this!

Situation in Palestine

According to the UN Secretary General António Guterres, the war in Gaza has entered the "cruellest phase" since its beginning. After Israel is said to have eased an 11-week-long block of aid into Gaza, the entire 2.1 million-strong population of Gaza is at risk of famine. As the humanitarian chief of the UN declared on Thursday, 14.000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if no food is allowed in the country. Even though 600 trucks are needed each day to cease the starvation of the Gazan people, only 400 have been cleared this week in total, of which only 115 have been distributed.

While hunger and desperation are spreading all throughout Gaza, the devastating situation has led to chaotic scenes during food distribution, while 15 aid trucks have been looted on the night of Thursday. While the World Food Program urges Israel to ensure a safe distribution of food, six people who defended aid trucks against looters have been killed by an Israeli airstrike, which also targeted the ambulances attempting to recover the dead bodies and provide help for the wounded.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its expansion of the military ground invasion of the territory, leading to 79 casualties in the last 24 hours alone. Adding to the more than 62.000 people killed after the 7th of October 2023, including 1,155 medical personnel and 205 journalists.

Local Pro-Palestine Protest

In light of the worsening situation in Gaza, about 30 students of the Pro-Palestinian group called Maastricht 4 Palestine started to block the entrances of the Law Faculty at Maastricht University on Tuesday morning. Declaring, "No, business as usual during genocide", the group did not allow staff and students to enter the building while forming a human chain in front of the doors. As I arrived on the scene shortly after the blockade had started, the protesters were engaging in conversation with students and staff while handing out flyers to explain their demands. While the protesters remained peaceful all throughout my presence, some staff and students violently shoved and punched their way through the lines. One student especially attracted my attention by intentionally crashing a bike into one of the protestors. As attempts by security and the dean failed to gain back control over the situation, the protestors circled the faculty to block vain efforts of UM to open up new doors to let students in. After three and a half hours of blockade, the protestors left voluntarily, just to show up again at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences shortly afterwards, to block the entrances for another hour, before dissolving once and for all.

An anonymous protester explained that the protest was intended to increase pressure on Maastricht University to cut ties with Israeli institutions. Since multiple Pro-Palestinian groups in Maastricht have been engaging in dialogue with UM for more than 3 years about this concern in the light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the group did not see any other way than disrupting classes to increase pressure on the University.

Later this week, on Friday, the same group called for a walk-out at several faculties of UM to even further increase the pressure on the University. Both protests are just two of many attempts of the Pro-Palestine movement in Maastricht during the last year to hold the University accountable for partnerships that contribute to Israeli apartheid and the Genocide in Gaza. M4P claims that ties such as an exchange program with Hebrew University is contributing to the normalisation of Israeli apartheid and genocide. Hebrew University has been criticised widely for being built upon illegally occupied Palestinian land and its discrimination against Palestinian students.

International critique

As the local pressure on Israel and its partners increases, the prime ministers of the EU have decided to revise its trade and cooperation agreements with the country. Out of 27 foreign ministers, 17 backed a proposal from the Dutch foreign minister, Caspar Veldcamp, to examine its relationship with the country, as Israel is violating international humanitarian law. As the EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, with a value of almost 47 billion Euro in 2022, a new evaluation of the ties could mean a heavy strain on Israel's economy.

Earlier this week, France, Canada and the UK have already threatened Israel with imposing sanctions if the humanitarian blockade is not resolved immediately. Following an unprecedented move of the three countries that have been backing Israel until this point the countries distance themselves from US support of the military offensive. Including a critique against the illegal settlements of Israelis in the West Bank, the premiers call for Israel to stop the blockade of food into Gaza and prevent millions of people from starving.

Recent international reactions to Israel's endeavours in Gaza and the West Bank show a crumbling support and growing resistance from the public. While human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have long called out the genocide committed in Gaza, the public pressure on governments to prevent complicity and end the genocide is rising.