The legacy of the Holocaust “blinds” some countries to the suffering of Palestinians, a Green MEP has said.
Ciarán Cuffe, who is seeking re-election, made the comments during a debate with other candidates in the Dublin constituency.
The politicians were engaging with representatives from youth charities on the European Parliament’s role in online safety and targeting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Mr Cuffe said there had been a “sticking point” in a recent parliamentary debate about mass surveillance of electronic communications.
He said: “My political group is against that. We do allow targeted scanning when you have solid grounds of concern.”
He added: “So absolutely, you have to tackle child abuse, but we can’t do that by letting Big State or Big Tech take over and look at everything that we put online.
“And I think that will be the debate that continues over the next year.”
Mr Cuffe was responding to a question from one of the youth representatives about German legislators’ attempts to restrict the phrase “from the river to the sea” amid a wave of pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
He continued: “The words that you might use in Germany would be considered illegal – and the last nine months have been extraordinary.
“I mean, for me, the Holocaust casts a really long shadow over the world and blinds many countries to the reality of the humanitarian toll on the Palestinian people.”
He said this was a “good example” of differences across EU member states and a reason why there should not be broad scanning of electronic material.
