Ilan Pappe, the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, has said the enabling role of Western countries when it comes to Israeli bombardment in Gaza is “even worse” than their stance during the Nakba, Al Jazeera reports.

“At the time in 1948, there was no television. People did not have smartphones, and it was relatively easy to cover up the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing, and to claim that it didn’t exist,” the Israeli historian told Al Jazeera.

“It is impossible to say now that people cannot know what is going on when it appears on our screens,” Pappe said.

“So I think the level of denial today is far more sinister, far more outraging and really I think is one of the main reasons why the civil societies, even in the West, find it impossible to be silent anymore and are led now by brave students all around the United States and elsewhere who feel that they know exactly what goes on and they do all they can to stop it,” he added.

Pappe also expressed scepticism that politicians in Europe would change their “basic indifference and the international immunity they have provided to Israel” before the European Parliament elections at the beginning of June.

“But I am confident that in the near future, beyond the 2024 elections, this kind of attitude that has been displayed by European politicians will come back to bite them because they are not representing faithfully their electorates when it comes to Palestine,” he said.

“They never did before, but particularly in the last seven months, their positions have been very different from the moral position displayed by most of the people who have a modicum of consciousness and decency in them when they understand what goes in Gaza and when they show their support for the people of Gaza.”