The brutal flaw in Israel’s starvation plan - Famine won’t bring victory : Alex de Waal / UnHerd

Article shared by Angela Raven-Roberts

More on the uses of food and blockades etc. An important read but the GHF militarization plan cannot be depicted as "humanitarian".
Angela

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Summary
Alex de Waal, a leading famine expert, critiques Israel’s strategy of using food as a weapon in Gaza, comparing it to colonial counter-insurgency tactics. Drawing parallels with Britain’s “Operation Starvation” in 1950s Malaya, he argues that Israel’s modern variant—combining blockade, surveillance, and algorithmic targeting—pushes the concept into the digital age. The newly proposed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a selective, militarised aid system meant to bypass traditional UN channels and deny aid to Hamas operatives. De Waal warns that the approach is logistically inadequate, morally dubious, and lacks a viable political solution, potentially leading to mass starvation and long-term consequences for both Gaza and Israel.

Quotes

“Israel has taken a page from the colonial war handbooks. But it is doing something that has never been done before. It is bringing the weaponisation of food into the digital age.”

“The GHF isn’t designed by a relief professional... the quantities just aren’t sufficient... there’s no plan for clean water and electricity.”“Israel is offering the Palestinians a choice between starvation or capitulation — with unknowable long-term implications.”