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Monday, December 20, 2021

Palestinians eat more meat per capita than any Arab nation. While they get more aid per capita.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a report on meat consumption in the Arab world - and Palestinians eat more red meat per capita than any Arab nation, with 97 kilograms per person per year consumed.

This was way ahead of the rich Gulf countries. Kuwait's rate was 67 kg per capita, the UAE was at 60 kg, Saudi Arabia had 54 kg.

That would put Palestinians in the top ten worldwide in meat consumption per capita.

What about other food metrics compared to the Arab world? The Lancet and NGOs constantly come out with statistics to make it sound like Palestinian children have high amounts of food insecurity, stunted growth or wasting. How do they compare with Arab states?

Pretty well. Not the best and far from the worst.

For stunting in children, the Palestinian rate is lower than nearly all Arab countries outside of wealthy Gulf states.

For wasting for children under 5, Palestinians are better than nearly all Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Oman:


This points to one of the little discussed problems of the world's obsession with Palestinians: more aid is sent to them per capita that anyone else, and they need this help less than many or most other groups. Which means that the overrepresentation of various aid groups falling over themselves to give more and more to Palestinians takes away more and more from other countries that need it more. 

One would think that socialists would be sensitive to that inequality. 

Put it this way: the antisemitism that underlies making the Palestinian cause appear to be the most critical issue on the planet ends up hurting millions of people worldwide.