Starving Gaza
There are moments when the pain of the world grabs hold of us. As brutality, greed, and violence accelerate, the assault on human beings and on the world that sustains our lives has taken on a vicious force. The use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza is happening in front of the eyes of the world. In spite of the Israeli Government’s effort to corral and kill journalists, the reality of what is happening now in Gaza is shaking the world at its core.
The people of Gaza are being starved to death. They are being killed indiscriminately as they struggle for food. Their lives are falling into chaos and death. Michael Fakhri, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said on Democracy Now!, “This is the fastest famine we’ve seen, the fastest starvation campaign we’ve seen in modern history.”
The U.S. is complicit in this death. Along with the Netanyahu government, the U.S. forced the dismantling of UN backed aid to Gaza and replaced it with a shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Their few, badly run food distribution sites have become new killing grounds as US mercenaries join Israeli soldiers in murdering those who seek food. More than 1,000 people have been shot to death.
This use of food as a weapon has been a collaborative effort designed to undermine the UN and to place lucrative contracts into the hands of a handful of newly formed, obscure organizations.
While US and Israeli propaganda tout the food distribution organizations as “independent” and “neutral,” the reality is far more sinister. As the New York Times reported:
The main group providing security is run by Philip F. Reilly, a former senior C.I.A. officer, and a fund-raising group is headed by Jake Wood, a former U.S. Marine…Announcing the arrangement in early May, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said it was “wholly inaccurate” to call it “an Israeli plan.”
In the midst of this starvation, aid is within easy reach. Trucks, loaded with food, water and medical supplies, are being blocked from entering Gaza.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)—that used to help oversee aid distribution in Gaza before Israel imposed its blockade and barred independent organizations—said on social media that the crisis was “all man-made, in total impunity.”
“Food is available only a few kilometers away …UNRWA alone has enough stock available outside of Gaza for the entire population for the next 3 months. We have not been allowed to bring any aid in since 2 March.”
The widening starvation and famine comes as the Israeli military continues to expand its ground invasion, issuing repeated displacement orders, with more than 86% of Gaza now in a so-called “red zone”—either under active displacement orders or in a “combat” zone.
Behind this latest horror are the twin forces of genocide and greed. The effort to eradicate the Palestinian people is now a goal stated by Israeli officials without shame or hesitation. The Trump administration is calling for a U.S. takeover of the land, emptied of its people, to build “the Riveria of the Middle East.”
In response, more than 100 humanitarian organizations issued a statement urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now. Emergency demonstrations are being called in cities around the country, including here in Detroit. A second freedom flotilla ship, The Handala is mounting a challenge to the blockade, attempting to bring world attention to the crisis. People and organizations creating campaigns to pressure the UN into action, including raising the possibility of sending UN peacekeeping forces into Gaza.
Each of us must find ways to support these initiatives. Certainly, we can challenge the individuals and corporations who are now making money from this death. The choice to raise our voices for life is urgent.