Some basic truths:
1. People are starving in Gaza.
2. Thousands of aid trucks are waiting to go in, supported by professionals who can distribute it.
3. All Israel has to do is open the gates and let it in.
4. Not opening the gates is a war crime.
Open the effing gates.
Israel just issued new “evacuation orders” for Deir al-Balah. More than 80% of Gaza is already under orders, there is nowhere safe to go, and the population is being starved.
The depravity is endless.
Breaking: I’m receiving urgent updates from the ground—Israel has just bombed a crowd of people waiting for aid near the Zikim crossing point in Beit Lahia. There are many casualties, and ambulances cannot reach the area.
Famine in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels. The Netanyahu government has intensified the famine during ceasefire negotiations, using mass starvation as leverage to force Hamas into concessions. People in Gaza are literally dying of famine as you read this.
For the Netanyahu government these ceasefire negotiations aren't about ending the war. They want a brief pause (60 days) - just enough to give Netanyahu political breathing room, while they move forward with their plan of concentration camps and forced displacement.
Netanyahu's government clearly can't tolerate ending the war on these terms because it will appear like Israel "lost". It's very clear to anyone with a working brain that their "victory conditions" for this war is Gaza emptied. This is ethnic cleansing as strategic objective.
A conversation that took place this evening in our dark tent, while the sound of warplanes filled the sky and hunger filled our hearts:
Imad (softly, holding his stomach):
“Baba… I’m hungry. Is there any bread?”
Adam (trying to speak, tugging at my shirt):
“Baa… eat…”
Yara
Too many clementines in a love song and the people of Gaza are dying from hunger.
Gaza, once famous for its oranges and clementines, hasn’t tasted either in 22 months.
The orchards that once scented the air with citrus are now scorched, the trees burned or withered to death. And
We’re not meant to be numb. You’re not meant to look away. That ache in your chest? That anger in your gut? That feeling you can’t shake that makes you feel like the world should suffer and tremble to finally wake up and put an end to this? That’s your humanity refusing to die.
All of us in America are financially supporting this Israeli created mass deliberate starvation and massacre in Gaza. This is our crime.---just making record here, again.
Death by hunger, enforced hunger, manufactured hunger. It is here. The person who sees the body of a four year old girl, emaciated beyond belief, and has his or her "doubts", that person is a travesty of a human being. This was intentional, known and premeditated. It is here. The
Day after day after day, starving Palestinians trying to get food are slaughtered by Israeli troops. Then Israel announces some fake investigation that never leads to accountability or changes, and the dumbest people on this website blame anyone but the people in charge.
This conversation is happening now, as I return from the American aid distribution point, dragging my exhausted feet, with a heart heavier than my body…
Yara (worried, her eyes filling with tears):
You're back?! Where’s the flour? What happened?!
Me (in a low voice):
I brought
A Muslim father of five was kidnapped by ICE in Greensboro last week.
Plainclothes agents stormed his home, never showed a badge, and threatened his family. They came back and detained him on his way to work.
His name is Mohamed Aboubaker Naser.
tinyurl.com/ywbb2cna
Hunger. Hunger is different. It is not an act of wild anger. It is not an act of systematic, industrialized extermination. It is an act of denial, an act of rejection. To starve a people you must push them out of all frames of reference. You must make their death a matter of no
Major missing piece re requiring citizenship docs to receive vital government services like shelter and food: cities across the country throw away homeless ppl's IDs and vital paperwork all the time.
How can you prove you are a citizen if the gov't throws away your proof?
Keep up the pressure. It’s working. Today, for the first time, mainstream Israeli TV covered the hunger in Gaza. (You can call Israeli TV antisemitic, if you like. It won’t change the facts.)
Beinart: The blood is on our hands as Americans because it is our weapons that is responsible for those children starving to death.
Jennings: No blood for the hands of Hamas.
Beinart: One of my closest friends was blown up by hamas. I have probably a lot more experience with
Emotional scenes as 11 New York rabbis were just arrested at our protest tonight at the Israeli consulate.
Chants of “let Gaza live!” and “that’s my rabbi!” thundered through the crowd as the rabbis were taken away by the police.