It is impossible to comprehend the humanitarian crisis that is affecting Gaza. Not just a tragic consequence of war, but deliberate use of starvation as a tool of political and demographic control are what we are seeing. This method, which aims to destroy Palestinian society, constitutes a structural genocide.
In its efforts to impose itself and sabotage Palestinian national aspirations, Israel’s military and political leadership have abandoned conventional methods of bombardment and physical destruction. Its current methods target the basic necessities of Palestinian survival: food, water, and the means of surviving.
It is not harmful to violate a people’s will by denying them the ability to feed themselves. It is a policy. More than 95 percent of Gaza’s farmland has been destroyed or rendered unusable, according to reports from independent international organizations. That figure represents a deliberate dismantlement of food sovereignty, along with any hope of future independence, not just an economic loss.
systematic destruction is occurring. The user has been denied access to the seeds. The water infrastructure is at risk. Farmers and fishermen have been the target of numerous attacks despite their already under severe siege. These are not random deeds. In accordance with Israel’s long-term strategic objectives of absolute control and political submission, they are a part of a larger plan to re-engineer Gaza’s demographic and economic future.
The complicity of the international community is what makes this all the more alarming. Global actors have contributed to the normalization of starvation as a weapon of war, whether through silence or vague diplomatic statements that characterize the situation as a “humanitarian crisis.” Israel has been given the cover to carry on these crimes with impunity because they were not called war crimes committed as part of a genocide.
How food itself has evolved into a bargaining chip is even more disturbing. Political and military negotiations are currently a source of conflict over access to essentials like flour, formula for babies, and bottled water. This exposes a pitiful power logic. The purpose of the political conditions is to impose them through deliberate manipulation of civilian suffering rather than stability or mutual security.
Israel has created a trap in which Palestinians are denied any political and economic authority by systematically destroying local means of survival while making Gaza entirely dependent on outside aid. They are being reduced to a manageable, controlled, and traded population.
Every factoid coming out of Gaza must be viewed through this lens. It is tragic that the strategy is progressing, not just because a majority of the population currently suffers from food insecurity. Not merely supplying the hungry. It involves challenging a people’s spirit and making them accept a new reality in accordance with the occupier’s terms.
Yet, Gaza’s resilience endures. An international order that values managed crises over political accountability has been exposed by this defiance, which is under siege and starvation. Not a drought-induced famine. Not a failed state’s chaos exists here. This crime is still being committed, eyes wide open, under the protective mask of global indifference.
Let me add that international organizations for civil society and global movements, like La Via Campesina, are not squatting quietly. The 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum will feature some of the most important movements of farmers, fishermen, and indigenous peoples around the world, many of whom are from conflict-affected regions. We aim to create a unified global response to the widespread indifference that ignores the arbitrary sequestration of entire communities. We are working from the ground up to create concrete recommendations to prevent the use of starvation as a weapon in war. Throughout the world, people of conscience are leading the charge against their governments’ actions while simultaneously organizing countless acts of solidarity.
What is happening in Gaza will be remembered forever. It will also remember those who made the decision to remain silent. Justice may be delayed, but it will be delivered, and it will ask those who watched as people were famined to try to subdue a people.
Source: Aljazeera
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