Gaza's children need food not UN definitions of famine
As the UN nears the threshold of famine in Gaza, children die of starvation every single day.
'Uthman bin 'Affan narrated that the Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w) said:
"There is no right for the son of Adam in other than these things: A house which he lives in, a garment which covers his nakedness, and Jilf (a piece of bread) and water."
The Gaza genocide is revealing the worst of humanity to itself, it is exposing the deep rooted problems with how the world functions. Not on some profound intellectual level (that is a whole different discussion), but on the very base level things human beings take for granted. Things such as peace, dignity, healthcare and food.
A couple of months ago, I wrote about the absurdity of debating whether the actions of the Zionists in Gaza constitute genocide. Something which is remains unresolved. I wrote there was a need for action and not the testing of legal definitions. Article is linked below.
Months later and as the world still awaits some kind of practical intervention for the people of Gaza we are now wrangling with new terms and new definitions this time about famine.
Today the UN issued its latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert. An IPC alert is issued in times when there is a rapid deterioration in food security, emergency situations and the like.
According to the latest IPC Alert on the situation in Gaza:
The IPC Alert highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the territory, with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response.
The alert includes some well crafted maps and statistics regarding food security in Gaza. I am sure many well-meaning people have spent countless hours putting all of this together.
However just as with the debate around the legal definition of genocide in Gaza these are all mute points when people are being slaughtered and starved to death.
According to the alert as seen in the image above a famine is declared when
20% of households need to face an extreme lack of food
30% of children (under five) suffer from acute malnutrition
Two adults or four children out of 10,000 people die from starvation or malnutrition on a daily basis
The situation in Gaza is not quite a famine yet, so we can all carry on as we were there is no need to panic.
These kind of definitions and data gathering are all essential to document. They would be useful if ever the war criminals involved were brought to trial for their actions something far fetched at this moment in time. However they do little to help if not followed up by practical action.
United Nations toothless tool or never again movement?
The United Nations (UN) was set up in 1945 in response to the horrors of World War I and II, rebranded from the League of Nations created after the first World War.
A part of the UN was The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was created months after the UN itself.
Less well-known than the wilful mass killing associated with World War II is just how much loss of life was linked to food deprivation. Of the 60 million deaths chalked up to the conflict, at least a third are estimated to have been caused by malnutrition and associated diseases
This quote taken from the current FAO website in a nutshell describes the mission of the FAO, it is the never again of mass starvation during and after conflict.
One of the examples cited by the FAO website is that of the 1943 Bengal famine. Triggered by cyclones and perpetuated by British war time policies three million people starved to death.
The British use of the ‘deny policy’ added to the famine, in which huge supplies of rice and thousands of boats were confiscated from coastal areas of Bengal in order to deny resources to the Japanese army in case of a future invasion. Britain also refused to send aid to the starving people in Bengal and instead diverted food to British soldiers and the Middle East. The great war hero Churchill being the chief architect.
Churchill accused the Indians of Bengal of “breeding like rabbits”.
With contempt like this towards the starving is it little wonder that Kier Starmer called for the cutting of food and electricity to the Gaza strip after October 7th?
The Bengal famine shows colonial stomach for watching people starve and to then point the finger of blame at them. If this sounds familiar it is exactly what is happening in Gaza, children are being starved and any clamour to get the very little aid that is in the area is blamed on the Palestinians being an uncivlised people.
So what of the “never again” organisations such as the UN and FAO, what have they actually achieved?
Despite producing reports and statistics nothing much, we live in a world where the images of starving children are not enough to declare a global call to action. A world where detailed reports of how close to actual definition of famine we have reached are released, yet any practical action is held to ransom by war criminals and genocidal governments.
The United Nations is inempt and a tool of colonial policy it is no longer fit for purpose (if it ever was). It and the Western world are no longer standard bearers for humanity as they sit and watch the extermination and starvation of a people. Gaza has shown when the west says never again it actually means “again and again”.
The sad thing is the Muslim world holds onto the embers of a dying world order rather than adopting the Islamic tradition of feeding those in need Muslim or not, through state and society.
Alas our rulers sit in palaces and our soldiers in barracks whilst the children of Gaza look on in the hope of being saved.
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When will they try to stop this madness?
I cannot believe that there seems to be no possibility to help starving people?