As painful as it might sound, the “Ukraine moment” offers Palestinians a strategic opportunity to set the record straight where resistance, refugees, freedom, liberation, political rights and BDS are concerned.

This is a strategic opportunity to hold European actors accountable not only for the past harm and grievances they have caused, but also for the present and future harms caused by denying Palestinians their rights.

Palestinians should escalate their BDS demands against apartheid, settler-colonial Israel, upholding the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. This is an effective way to ensure accountability, and it clearly has some traction in European policy circles.

Europe, we now know what you can do when you want to. And we know better how to hold you accountable. For now, let’s keep the focus on the “Ukraine moment”. Tomorrow, let’s use it to redress other injustices around the world.

Going forward, it will not be acceptable for European policymakers to tell me, when I ask them to treat Palestine like Ukraine: “It’s different!”

Published at The Middle East Eye, 9 March 2022

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