"Bomb Gaza's food", demands Israeli leader

The Western media doesn't even bother to cover most of these genocidal statements.

How unhinged, how genocidal, how depraved, can Israel’s leaders possibly get?

Bad news, we are very far from hitting the floor.

Itamar Ben-Gvir is the Israeli minister for National Security, and leader of the far right Oztma Yehudit party, or Jewish Power, which is a straightforward fascist party.

He was visiting the United States, where he went to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago estate, and said the following:

I had the honor and privilege of meeting with senior Republican Party officials at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. They expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely.

Just so we’re clear here, though I think that was very clear - Israel’s Minister of National Security has said he’s met with senior Republican officials who have expressed his support for bombing aid and food depots in Gaza.

During his visit, he also addressed journalists to emphasise his support for a policy of starvation.

For wider context, Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, which has been in place since 1st March. Nothing is allowed in - not food, not fuel, not water, not medical supplies, nothing, zero, zilch.

This is in the context of food production being destroyed.

According to the UN in January, 75% of fields used to grow crops have been damaged or destroyed, and over two thirds of agricultural wells are no longer functional, leaving irrigation crippled.

96% of cattle are dead, milk production has halted, 99% of poultry are dead, and the fishing sector has collapsed.

Research by Forensic Architecture found last year that 83% of plant life had been destroyed.

So we have a total blockade imposed on anything getting in, combined with Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s ability to provide food for its population.

According to UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees:

- Humanitarian aid and supplies have not entered the Gaza Strip for over 50 days now. Critical humanitarian supplies are rapidly depleting. UNRWA flour supplies have run out.

- While hunger is spreading and deepening in the Gaza Strip, nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks of lifesaving aid are ready to enter.

- UNRWA remains one of the largest health actors operating in the Gaza Strip. However, two thirds of essential medical supplies are projected to run out in under two months, and many already have.

Last week, Odai Fadi Ahmad, a little boy, died of hunger and malnutrition. And yet just miles away from this apocalyptic, starving wasteland, there are sushi bars, restaurants serving fine foods. It is one of the most grotesque contrasts in human history.

It is in this context that Ben-Gvir is demanding that Israel bombs food and aid depots. This is nothing short of an open, proud, deliberate attempt to starve an entire population, a self evidently genocidal act, and indeed the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, with charges focused on starvation.

Now in a sane universe, protesting against this genocidal maniac would be considered uncontroversial, even morally necessary. Indeed, Ben-Gvir attended a lecture near Yale University. Ben-Gvir intentionally tried to goad the crowd.

And yet after these protests, Yale University stripped Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter of its status as an official student group.

Meanwhile, a journalist at the right-wing Daily Wire posted: “Jewish students being screamed at for attending a lecture at Yale.”

Clearly these students were being booed and met with cries of ‘shame’ because they were attending a lecture by a genocidal war criminal who should, in a just and rational world, be arrested for war crimes.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the right has spent so long claiming that the left spreads false claims of racism, and yet here is relentless evidence of the right doing exactly that.

Ben-Gvir, it should be noted, has been convicted of incitement to racism and terrorism in Israel, and long before 7th October he demanded the expulsion of the 20% of Israel’s population who are Palestinian.

And here’s something else related to Ben-Gvir. The day he was demanding Israel bombs food and aid depots, and protesters were being disciplined for protesting against him, Israeli media released a photo of Palestinian detainees being hideously abused by their Israeli prison captors, in front of large photographs of Israel’s destruction of Gaza in order to mentally torture them. Those prisons, of course, are under the command of Ben-Gvir as minister for national security.

And what is the West actually doing about all of this, while Israeli ministers openly boast about committing war crimes designed to starve Palestinians. An arms embargo? Sanctions? Actual material leverage from Israel’s patrons to force it to stop committing heinous atrocities?

No, David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, has sent yet another disappointed tweet.

He writes;

For over 50 days, Israel has fully blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is completely unacceptable.

Vital supplies are running out and Palestinians risk facing starvation.

With France and Germany, we urge Israel to immediately restart the flow of aid.

Well that’s undoubtedly going to fix it. Bet they’re shaking in Tel Aviv.

Look, let’s be honest, this gang of murdering war criminals are laughing at the British government, and if they’re not frankly they should be.