The starvation meme

I cannot tell you how bad things are in Gaza today. Israel says there's plenty of aid; the UN claims there is a food crisis.

But what I can tell you is that there have been accusations of Gazans "starving" since at least 2006 - and they were all lies. Not one Gazan starved. It was all theater. 

Jimmy Carter falsely claimed more than once that Gazans were "literally starving." 

The meme reappears every few years, and is always equally false.

News Line (socialist), 2006: "Israel’s brutal occupation of the Palestinian people has created refugees, death squads, and now starvation in Gaza, and hunger throughout the occupied territories."

The UN, 2007:  "The forced starvation diet of Palestinians"

Richard Falk, 2007: " Israel ...has brought the people of Gaza to the brink of collective starvation and desolation."

Business Insider, 2011: "The Israeli Campaign To Starve Palestinians Into Submission Is A Crime"

WRMEA, 2019: "The Scenario of a Million Palestinians Going Hungry in Gaza"

Guardian, 2019: "One million face hunger in Gaza after US cut to Palestine aid"

And sometimes that meme is replaced with "Gaza supermarkets have too much Israeli stuff." Not a joke, this was published in Al Monitor in 2013:

Walking into a supermarket in Gaza might come as a great surprise for a person visiting the coastal enclave for the first time. At first glance, the visitor would be amazed by the level to which the shelves are packed with all kinds of products, ranging from basic food supplies to expensive chocolates and Coca-Cola. A father pushing a heaped stroller, or a toddler restlessly pulling her mother's hand and pointing at a lollipop, are scenes one is likely to encounter.

A closer look into the shelves, however, reveals a paradox that finds a manifestation in almost every aspect of life in Gaza. On the surface, everyone seems to be normally going about their daily lives, but even purchasing behaviors are controlled by Israel. The Israeli government brags about the truckloads it allows into the Strip through the Karem Abu Salem commercial crossing point, but it always forgets, deliberately or not, to mention that the products that enter the Strip through this very crossing are mostly marked with 729, the made-in-Israel barcode.

Yes, Israel was not only falsely blamed for starving Gazans, it was also blamed for sending lots of Israeli foods into Gaza, too.

Do you get the idea that perhaps the starvation meme was just an excuse for bashing Israel?

So while I cannot say what is going on now, when the same people who falsely claimed Gaza was starving for 18 years are saying it today, keep in mind how little credibility they have. I would trust COGAT's statistics on how much food is getting into Gaza far more than I trust the UN. 

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