Israel’s increasing global isolation
Nine days before the 2nd anniversary of the start of Israel’s horrific genocide in Gaza, it faces increasing criticism in the west, and mounting calls for sporting and cultural bans.
Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to an almost empty hall at the UN General Assembly on September 26, 2025, as most of the delegates present had walked out in disgust.
My new article on my website, The Slow But Significant Erosion of Israel’s Genocidal Impunity in the West, is my analysis of Israel’s increasing international isolation, as a number of western countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal and France, have finally recognized the State of Palestine, as pressure mounts on FIFA to ban Israel from international football, and as calls also increase for it to be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest.
Nearly a million people have signed a petition calling for Israel to be banned from the World Cup, with a decision from FIFA expected as early as next week, and with recent reports indicating that a large majority of the executive committee and the federations are “understood to be in favour of a ban.”
On Eurovision, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have all having pledged to withdraw from the competition if Israel are allowed to take part next year, with Spain’s inclusion being particularly significant, as it is one of the “big five” competitors, along with the UK, Germany, France and Italy, who make the largest financial contributions to the contest, and whose opinions therefore have additional weight.
In addition, just two days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu also faced an almost total walkout when he visited the US to address the UN General Assembly, in which, as I describe it, he “was left as a forlorn ranting figure, akin to how Hitler would have appeared had the UN existed in 1943, and had he somehow been invited to visit to try to justify his actions.”
Although the respected Middle East commentator Mouin Rabbani was undoubtedly correct to state, in an article for Jacobin, that the actions these governments chose to take in recognizing the State of Palestine “were the least consequential available”, I believe it should not be underestimated, given the deeply embedded nature of Israeli influence in these countries, how even the “least consequential” actions will have led to a tsunami of criticism behind closed doors, as they break with what, to date, has been a rigorous insistence by Israel’s supporters that its actions must never be meaningfully criticized or challenged.
None of the above will bring to an end Israel’s ongoing and ever more deranged genocidal actions in Gaza, for which, above all, arms bans and the imposition of punishing economic sanctions are needed, but, as I state, “every blow delivered may bring Israel’s collapse closer”, and in the meantime, it’s important to “recognize that it is people power that has been pushing western leaders to act, and to move, however slowly, away from their previously unbreakable support for Israel”, and this must “reinforce our determination to keep pushing for an end to the genocide, for meaningful accountability, and for Israel to be shunned until some just resolution is delivered for the Palestinian people.”
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