From Évian 1938 to G7 2026: Israel, Gaza and the limits of international action

As world leaders met in Eivan, Israel faces sharp criticism from several global bodies and international courts, which has significantly strained its global standing, even though its core military and trade alliance largely remains intact. At the ICJ, Israel is defending itself against charges of violating the Genocide Convention. The court has ordered several binding interim orders demanding that Israel halt specific military offensives, prevent acts of genocide and allow unhindered international aid. But Israel continues with its planned expansion in the West Bank, and it continues to violate the ceasefire in Gaza.

Fractures with its Western allies

While the US and G7 nations maintain trade and military relationships with Israel, they continue to supply it with weapons. Several Western nations, such as Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, have at least on the surface tried to ban export of military equipment, such as sales of F-35 and its components, Iron Dome and its components. Many of these bans and controls have loopholes in legislation, ultimately resulting in symbolic restrictions rather than structural exemptions. However, in a sharp diplomatic rebuke, in late 2024, European nations, including Spain, Ireland, Norway, and Slovenia, formally recognised Palestine as an independent state, arguing this is necessary to rescue the prospects of a two-state solution. Many major cities across the US, Europe, and Asia have seen sustained, massive public demonstrations demanding an immediate ceasefire and arms embargoes. In academia, specifically Israel has faced backlash, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel has been going strong for more than 20 years. The movements are specifically led by the University and College Union, scholars, educators and professors, and it has gained momentum in European nations. Universities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain have increasingly voted to suspend agreements with Israeli institutions. According to one report by The Telegraph, there have been 300 instances of boycotts in the year following the Oct 7 attacks, and a year later, that number had more than doubled to 700 at the end of 2025.

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Shades of 1938 prelude to WW2

In July 1938, Evian was the site of a similar gathering of world leaders, led by then US President Franklin D Roosevelt, following Germany's annexation of Austria. The meeting was called to address the crisis of the German and Austrian Jewish population. While every country expressed profound sympathy for the plight of the Jewish population, none of them agreed to relax their immigration quotas and accept the Jewish population into their country, using economic and social justification for closed borders. What resulted was one of the most horrific crimes of human history. The United States refused to lift its restrictive immigration quotas, Great Britain blocked refugee settlement in Palestine, and Australia famously stated that since they had no racial problems, they were "not desirous of importing one." The Dominican Republic was the only nation to accept roughly 10000 Jewish population in exchange for agricultural investment. Eventually resulting in a settlement of the Jewish community in Sousa. The failure of the conference to produce concrete outcomes was amplified by Nazi propaganda, which argued that these nations engage in false moral superiority by condemning German treatment of the Jewish population, but none of them wanted to open their doors to them.

There are historical parallels between events leading up to the conference in Eivan in 1938, Germany had already annexed Austria, now Israel has effectively annexed parts of the West Bank. It had been bombing Palestinian refugees in tents. The G7 Summit in Eivan expressed support for Israel, "We affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel," G7 leaders said in the statement. They did acknowledge the human rights violations in Gaza, but it could not produce accountability or a concrete, actionable solution to end the humanitarian crisis. But it continued with its narrative that Iran is the source of instability in the region, the G7 leaders urged a broader de-escalation in the region. The United Nations Security Council and other international humanitarian bodies lack authority due to political divisions and persistent vetoes by the US to enforce robust humanitarian protection.