Gaza

‘Complete Madness’: Israel Blocks Food Aid as More Gaza Children Starve to Death

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Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Relatives of Yazan al-Kafarneh and other Palestinians pray and mourn the death of the 10-year-old Gaza boy from severe malnutrition in Rafah on March 4, 2024. (Photo: Rabie Abu Noqaira/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The starvation of children is a hallmark of genocide and a deliberate political choice by Israel, backed by the Biden administration,” said one humanitarian coordinator.

Gaza health officials said Thursday that the number of Palestinian children who have died from extreme malnutrition and dehydration amid Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide on the besieged strip has risen to at least 17, while one humanitarian group condemned the Israeli government for blocking lifesaving food and other aid from reaching starving people.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 21 people in Gaza ranging from 1 day to 72 years old have died from malnutrition and dehydration. However, the humanitarian group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) warned that “the true death toll due to starvation is feared to be much higher as many Palestinians, particularly in northern Gaza, face famine and are almost entirely cut off from the limited humanitarian aid entering Gaza through the southern Rafah crossing.”

“It is unthinkable that in 2024, in a world that produces more than enough food for all people, that Palestinian children are starving to death.”

That’s because Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops and civilians are blocking or severely restricting the flow of aid into Gaza. Soldiers stand by while extremist Israeli civilians set up roadblocks and encampments—one replete with a children’s bouncy castle—at border crossings. Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on aid convoys and crowds of people waiting for food deliveries, including in the February 29 Flour Massacre, in which more than 800 people were killed or wounded. Israeli civilians attempting to deliver aid to Gaza—including members of the Jewish-Arab solidarity group Standing Together—have been blocked by IDF troops.

“It is unthinkable that in 2024, in a world that produces more than enough food for all people, that Palestinian children are starving to death,” said DCIP accountability program director Ayed Abu Eqtaish. “The starvation of children is a hallmark of genocide and a deliberate political choice by Israel, backed by the Biden administration.”

“It is complete madness that Israeli authorities continue to prohibit and restrict food and other lifesaving supplies to a starving population while the international community stands by,” Abu Eqtaish added.

DCIP noted that “Yazan Kafarneh, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy with cerebral palsy, died on March 4 of malnutrition and lack of healthcare.”

“Young children, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of malnutrition and dehydration,” DCIP warned.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Thursday that around 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza are suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, and lack of adequate medical care. Malnourished pregnant mothers can’t feed their fetuses; Gaza’s youngest starvation fatality was reportedly just 1 day old.

United Nations, Palestinian, and humanitarian officials have called Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians a key component of the genocide in Gaza, while limited aid airdrops by Jordan and the United States have been described as woefully inadequate and a “theater of cruelty.”

More than 13,400 children and nearly 9,000 women are among the more than 30,800 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the October 7 attacks, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials.

In January, the International Court of Justice in The Hague found that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the country’s government to prevent genocidal acts. South Africa, which is leading the ICJ case, says Israel is violating the court’s order, and on Wednesday asked the tribunal to order additional emergency measures to protect Gazans.

In its plea, South Africa noted that when the ICJ declined to order requested emergency measures during the 1990s Balkan wars, “approximately 7,336 Bosnians in the so-called ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica had been slaughtered in what this court retrospectively determined to have been a genocide.”

No famine has yet been declared in Gaza. However, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative has launched a review of the Gaza crisis. ICP said in December that more than 90% of Gaza’s population was experiencing severe food insecurity or worse. That was before children started dying of starvation.

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Complete Madness’: Israel Blocks Food Aid as More Gaza Children Starve to Death

Coming soon: Should it properly be called Fascism?

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Image of Fascists Mussolini and Hitler
Image of Fascists Mussolini and Hitler

Our ancestors fought huge battles against Fascism in the 20the century e.g the Spanish Civil War and World War 2. I am considering whether we should be properly be calling the current situation of Israel’s Gaza genocide and anti-Muslim racist attacks Fascism.

Continue ReadingComing soon: Should it properly be called Fascism?

U.K. MEDIA IS ON ISRAEL’S SIDE

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[A young-looking] Rupert Murdoch, chairman emeritus of the group that owns The Times, is staunchly pro-Israel. (Photo: WEF / Handout)

A new report by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring highlights the UK media’s systematic bias in favour of Israel in reporting on the Gaza war.

The media’s role in the face of Israel’s aggression in Gaza – and plausible genocide – should be to responsibly report the news, validate facts, hold all powers to equal account and paint an accurate picture of events.

But whether this is actually so is the focus of a new, exhaustive report by the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring. It reveals Britain’s worst kept secret: the systematic bias of the mainstream media in favour of Israel when it comes to reporting on its onslaught in Gaza.

The report analyses 176,627 television clips from over 13 broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4. 

It also scrutinises 25,515 news articles from over 28 UK online media websites including the Guardian, Times, Express and Telegraph, between 7 October 2023 and 7 November 2023. 

The data was analysed for the framing of events, use of language and representation of Palestinian voices.

It finds that 76% of online articles frame Israel’s aggression as the “Israel-Hamas war” – rather than a war on Gaza – and that over 70% of the terms atrocities, slaughter and massacre in broadcast media were used exclusively in reference to attacks against Israelis. 

A notable absence of Palestinian voices is also detected: In TV reporting, Israeli perspectives have been referenced almost three times more (4,311) than Palestinian ones (1,598).

‘Right to self-defence’

Also identified is the willingness of many broadcasters to emphasise Israel’s supposed right to defend itself in Gaza. 

But as Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has said, Israel cannot claim the right of “self-defence” under international law because Gaza is a territory that it occupies.

Yet across TV, the insistence on this Israeli “right” is mentioned on 1,482 occasions. By contrast, mentions of the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s onslaught in Gaza amount to just 278. 

…

Continue ReadingU.K. MEDIA IS ON ISRAEL’S SIDE

What a Leaked US Cable Says About Israel’s Looming Assault on Rafah

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Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A man looks for survivors amid the debris of destroyed houses in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 22, 2024. 
(Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)

An invasion would have “catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response,” the cable warned.

An Israeli invasion of Rafah would have “catastrophic” consequences for the 1.5 million civilians sheltering in the southern Gazan city, a U.S. diplomatic cable has warned.

The cable, written by members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was sent from Jerusalem to the State Department in Washington, D.C. on Monday and reported by The Intercept on Tuesday.

“A potential escalation of military operations in within Southern Gaza’s Rafah Governorate could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response, multiple relief actors have warned USAID’s Levant Disaster Assistance Response Team,” the cable reads.

“A ‘military incursion’ into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action.”

It comes amid increased protests against a potential Rafah invasion and international calls for a cease-fire in an attack that the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible genocide. Israel’s assault on Gaza has already killed more than 30,000 people, displaced at least 85% of the population, and induced a famine that is killing children through starvation and dehydration.

The Biden administration faces mounting domestic pressure to push for an end to the onslaught. However, the cable was publicized the same day that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz and did not categorically reject a Rafah invasion. Instead, Blinken reportedly “underscored the need for a credible and implementable humanitarian plan prior to any major military operation in Rafah, given the risks to civilians.”

Yet the stark language of the cable belies the possibility of such a plan.

“At present, there appear to be no viable evacuation options for the 1.5 million in Rafah,” the cable said.

The Rafah Governorate, which it said was comparable in size to Syracuse, New York, has seen its population increase by more than sevenfold since Israel began its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ deadly incursion into Southern Israel on October 7. The Israeli military ordered civilians to flee southward for safety, and now those who heeded those calls have nowhere else to go.

“A large portion of those residing in Rafah, including elderly populations, exhausted IDPs [internally displaced persons], and those with reduced mobility, would likely remain in the governorate during the potential military operation due to lack of viable alternatives, heightening the risk of mass casualties,” the cable said.

It described the situation in Rafah as already dire. Many people entering Rafah from the north had their belongings seized by the Israel Defense Forces and then had to spend months trying to find basic items like blankets. The services that do exist are overwhelmed.

“The impact of hostilities has stretched the capacity of Gaza’s health system beyond its limit,” the cable said.

In addition, Israel been ramping up a bombing campaign against Rafah, leading to “escalating panic and increased breakdown of social order,” the cable said.

Reacting to the cable, journalist Heidi Moore said on social media that its assessment of a potential Rafah invasion as “catastrophic” was “the only conclusion.”

“A ‘military incursion’ into a tent city of unarmed civilians is a horrifying, psychopathic action,” Moore added.

It is unclear how much influence the cable will have with the administration. In addition to the State Department, copies of it were also sent to the National Security Council, secretary of defense, and the CIA.

USAID declined The Intercept‘s request for comment, but pointed to previous remarks of Administrator Samantha Power, who said in late February that the U.S. could not support a Rafah campaign without a “credible plan to protect civilians” and that it had “seen no credible plan.”

Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingWhat a Leaked US Cable Says About Israel’s Looming Assault on Rafah