Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman metaphorically shook their heads on Saturday over the starvation being faced by the people of Gaza in a telephone call. However, this expression of concern should not disguise the fact that what is now happening in Gaza may well be the most horrible episode of what has been a horrible act of genocide by Israel. Can the states observing what is happening now in Gaza escape the blame for what is being done with such impunity? Is the friendship of the USA so important that the situation in Gaza can be ignored? There are now reports of deaths, hundreds of deaths, of Gazans dying of starvation. The pictures coming out of Gaza are eerily reminiscent of those of Nazi concentration-camp survivors. The big difference is that most of those Jewish survivors were photographed after liberation, while the Gazans photographed have to go with their lives, with a lingering death probably at the end.
It is almost as if Israel now wished to depopulate the area by starving the people to death. They have tried killing them indiscriminately, something which has not worked. The idea of shifting them all was floated by US President Donald Trump, but was ridiculed as illegal and impractical to boot. Now, it seems, Israel seems to be trying starvation as a method. First it stopped aid convoys, then it started limited distributions, where it started killing people. Palestinians are now faced with a painful choice: starve, or get shot while trying to get a basic foodstuff like flour. There is no pathway on offer for what Cazans and all Palestinians really want: a free and prosperous life.
Starvation is worse than massacre, for it is slow, potentially lasting several weeks. There may be incidences of cannibalism, which the perpetrators can be sure to hold up to the world as proof of Palestinians’ bestiality. More importantly, it is a salve to the Israeli conscience. No trigger is pelled, no bomb dropped, not even a button pressed. Just children dying while crying of hunger. The massacre OF CHILDREN was not enough to rouse the consciences of the rulers of the Muslim world. It remains to be seen if the starvation of children does. A UN conference on Palestine is due in September, and France has announced that it will recognize Palestine. Is it too little too late.
