During the municipal council meeting of 23 June, the Ecolo.Groen group submitted the following motion, in reaction to and in support of the current genocide in Gaza.

A text that was ultimately rejected by the majority, which will, in July, propose a new text—more neutral and less demanding (consult the minutes of the municipal council meeting of 4 July, available online on the municipality’s website, to judge for yourself).

Here is the original text proposed by our group:

The Municipal Council,

Considering the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 based on the UN partition plan and the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians in the months before and after, which Palestinians call the Nakba;

Considering the illegal Israeli policy of colonisation and occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967, and the apartheid system imposed by Israeli authorities against the Palestinian population;

Considering UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 22 November 1967, which condemns the acquisition of territory by war, calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from occupied Palestinian territories, and affirms the territorial inviolability and political independence of all States in the region;

Considering that today around 650,000 settlers are illegally established in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and that many of these settlers contribute to the fragmentation of Palestinian territory and to a strategy of violence and oppression against the Palestinian people;

Considering the blockade of Gaza imposed on all 2 million inhabitants since 2007 and the humanitarian, economic, and social consequences which have plunged the population into extreme poverty;

Considering the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, which caused the death of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of 252 hostages;

Considering that the Israeli armed offensive conducted in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023 has, as of 9 May 2025, caused the death of 52,787 people, including more than 15,000 children, and injured 119,349, according to local Palestinian authorities;

Considering the Lancet study of 10 January 2025 estimating that this figure was underestimated by 41%, and that the number of indirect deaths could be up to four times higher;

Considering the death of more than 200 Palestinian journalists and 300 humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli occupation forces’ offensive following the Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023;

Considering the major humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israeli bombings for the past 580 days and the repeated strikes on civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, markets, and refugee camps;

Considering that the forced displacement of the population, affecting more than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, may be considered war crimes or even constitute elements of a crime of genocide;

Considering that the Israeli government has deliberately implemented a total humanitarian blockade of the Gaza Strip since 25 March 2025, leading to famine and threatening to cause the death of thousands of people in the coming days;

Considering that statements by Israeli authorities—notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant—constitute evidence of an intention to commit genocide;

Considering that the “risk of genocide” has been documented in detail by numerous internationally renowned NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as Belgian organisations such as CNCD-11.11.11, the Association Belgo-Palestinienne, and the Union of Progressive Jews of Belgium;

Considering the statements made on 6 November 2024 by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, warning of the risk of genocide in Gaza;

Considering the opening in 2021 by the International Criminal Court of an investigation into alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the growing calls to investigate possible crimes against humanity and genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, notably the declaration of the ICC’s founding prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, on 15 October 2023;

Considering the international arrest warrant issued against the head of the Israeli government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu;

Considering the long-standing assertion by Palestinian human rights organisations—recently joined by international organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Israeli groups such as B’Tselem and Yesh Din, as well as by several UN experts—that the State of Israel is guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid;

Considering that the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide obliges its signatory States, including Belgium, to take measures to prevent genocide and the crime of genocide;

The Etterbeek Municipal Council decides:

At the municipal level:

In the very short term:

• To declare the municipality of Etterbeek “Apartheid Free,” ensuring from now on that it does not support companies or associations involved in human rights violations in occupied Palestine.
• To ensure the exclusion from its public contracts of any company involved, directly or indirectly, in violations of international law.
• To hoist the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the Palestinian civilian population.

In the medium term:

• To undertake steps towards a symbolic twinning between the municipality of Etterbeek and a Palestinian city.
• To promote the granting of Belgian nationality to stateless children of Palestinian origin born and/or residing in the municipal territory.
• To publish the motion in the municipal bulletin, on the municipal website, and to organise a public information session to present and explain it.

And to request that the College urgently and insistently relay the following demands to the federal government:

• To promote at the diplomatic level the immediate lifting of the blockade and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
• To urgently promote the establishment of an international humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza.
• To work towards an immediate ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
• To support the suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, as requested by the Netherlands and supported by other European countries.
• To impose economic and diplomatic sanctions against Israeli leaders responsible for violations of international law.
• To publicly declare the implementation of a military embargo against the State of Israel.
• To ban the import into Belgium of products originating from Israeli settlements.
• To recognise Palestine as a sovereign State and the inviolability of its territory.