European Parliament holds minute of silence for victims of Oct. 7, Gaza war

EU lawmakers today held a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, as well as all those who lost their lives in the subsequent war, as the bloc’s chief vowed to step up the fight against antisemitism.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen decried what she described as “an alarming surge of antisemitism” in Europe, as she attended a memorial ceremony at a synagogue in Brussels marking the one-year anniversary of the attacks.

“This is just unacceptable,” she said, pledging to devote more resources to ensuring that “Jews can live and thrive” on the continent. “Antisemitism is a threat to our democracy. It is a cancer that questions the very foundations of our European Union. And we shall never allow it.”

Earlier, lawmakers paid tribute to the victims of the October 7 attack during a plenary sitting in Strasbourg, eastern France.

“The horror of that day will live in infamy,” European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola told the gathering. “There is nothing that could ever justify the indiscriminate mass murder, rape, kidnapping and torture that occurred a year ago.”