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   From: nospam@example.net   
      
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   I consider the guardian to be a low class socialist rag.   
      
   On Wed, 7 Feb 2024, NefeshBarYochai wrote:   
      
   >   
   > by Alex de Waal   
   >   
   > Gaza is experiencing mass starvation like no other in recent history.   
   > Before the outbreak of fighting in October, food security in Gaza was   
   > precarious, but very few children – less than 1% – suffered severe   
   > acute malnutrition, the most dangerous kind. Today, almost all Gazans,   
   > of any age, anywhere in the territory, are at risk.   
   >   
   > There is no instance since the second world war in which an entire   
   > population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with   
   > such speed. And there’s no case in which the international obligation   
   > to stop it has been so clear.   
   >   
   > These facts underpinned South Africa’s recent case against Israel at   
   > the international court of justice. The international genocide   
   > convention, article 2c, prohibits “deliberately inflicting [on a   
   > group] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical   
   > destruction in whole or in part”.   
   >   
   > In ordering provisional measures to prevent potential genocide last   
   > Friday, the ICJ didn’t rule on whether Israel is actually committing   
   > genocide – that will take years of deliberation – but the judges made   
   > it clear that the people of Gaza face “conditions of life” in which   
   > their survival is in question. Even Justice Aharon Barak, appointed by   
   > Israel to sit on the panel, voted in favour of immediate humanitarian   
   > relief.   
   >   
   > But a humanitarian disaster such as Gaza’s today is like a speeding   
   > freight train. Even if the driver puts on the brakes, its momentum   
   > will take it many miles before it stops. Palestinian children in Gaza   
   > will die, in the thousands, even if the barriers to aid are lifted   
   > today.   
   >   
   > Starvation is a process. Famine can be its ultimate outcome, unless   
   > stopped in time. The methodology used to categorize food emergencies   
   > is called the integrated food security phase classification system, or   
   > IPC. It’s a five-point scale, running from normal (phase 1), stressed,   
   > crisis, and emergency, to catastrophe/famine (phase 5).   
   >   
   > In categorizing food emergencies, the IPC draws on three measurements:   
   > families’ access to food; child malnutrition; and the numbers of   
   > people dying over and above normal rates. “Emergency” (phase 4)   
   > already sees children dying. For a famine declaration, all three   
   > measures need to pass a certain threshold; if only one is in that   
   > zone, it’s “catastrophe”.   
   >   
   > The IPC’s famine review committee is an independent group of experts   
   > who assess evidence for the most extreme food crises, akin to a high   
   > court of the world humanitarian system. The committee has already   
   > assessed that the entirety of Gaza is under conditions of “emergency”.   
   > Many areas in the territory are already in “catastrophe”, it said, and   
   > might reach “famine” by early February.   
   >   
   > Yet whether or not conditions are bad enough for an official   
   > declaration of “famine” is less important than the situation today,   
   > which is already killing children. Bear in mind that malnutrition   
   > makes humans’ immune systems more vulnerable to diseases sparked by   
   > lack of clean water and sanitation, and that those diseases are   
   > accelerated by overcrowding in unhealthy camps.   
   >   
   > Since the IPC was adopted 20 years ago, there have been major food   
   > emergencies in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,   
   > Ethiopia’s Tigray region, north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan,   
   > Sudan and Yemen. Compared to Gaza, these have unfolded slowly, over   
   > periods of a year or more. They have stricken larger populations   
   > spread over wider areas. Hundreds of thousands died, most of them in   
   > emergencies that didn’t cross the bar of famine.   
   >   
   > And in the most notorious famines of the late 20th century – in China,   
   > Cambodia, Nigeria’s Biafra and Ethiopia – the numbers who died were   
   > far higher, but the starvation was also slower and more dispersed.   
   >   
   > Never before Gaza have today’s humanitarian professionals seen such a   
   > high proportion of the population descend so rapidly towards   
   > catastrophe.   
   >   
   > All modern famines are directly or indirectly man-made – sometimes by   
   > indifference to suffering or dysfunction, other times by war crimes,   
   > and in a few cases by genocide.   
   >   
   > The Rome statute of the international criminal court, article   
   > 8(2)(b)(xxv), defines the war crime of starvation as “intentionally   
   > using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them   
   > of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully   
   > impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva   
   > conventions”.   
   >   
   > The main element of the crime is destruction and deprivation, not just   
   > of food but of anything needed to sustain life, such as medicine,   
   > clean water and shelter. Legally speaking, starvation can constitute   
   > genocide or war crimes even if it doesn’t include outright famine.   
   > People don’t have to die of hunger; the act of deprivation is enough.   
   >   
   > Many wars are starvation crime scenes. In Sudan and South Sudan, it’s   
   > widespread looting by marauding militia. In Ethiopia’s Tigray, farms,   
   > factories, schools and hospitals were vandalized and burned, far in   
   > excess of any military logic. In Yemen, most of the country was put   
   > under starvation blockade. In Syria, the regime besieged cities,   
   > demanding they “surrender or starve”.   
   >   
   > The level of destruction of hospitals, water systems and housing in   
   > Gaza, as well as restrictions of trade, employment and aid, surpasses   
   > any of these cases.   
   >   
   > It may be true, as Israel claims, that Hamas is using hospitals and   
   > residential neighbourhoods for its own war effort. But that doesn’t   
   > exonerate Israel. Much of Israel’s destruction of Gazan infrastructure   
   > appears to be away from zones of active combat and in excess of what   
   > is proportionate to military necessity.   
   >   
   > The most extreme historical cases – such as Stalin’s Holodomor in   
   > Ukraine in the 1930s and the Nazi “hunger plan” on the eastern front   
   > during the second world war – were genocidal famines at immense scale.   
   > Gaza doesn’t approach these, but Israel will need to act decisively if   
   > it is to escape the charge of having used hunger to exterminate the   
   > Palestinians. Starvation is a massacre in slow motion. And unlike   
      
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