“The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
— Nelson Mandela 1997.
Recently I was listening to an NPR program talking about Palestine and the genocide in Gaza and the point was made that Palestinians in Gaza are starving. People need to be very clear on this point: Palestinians in Gaza are not just starving! I repeat, that’s just not true. The fact is that Palestinians in Gaza are being starved to death. This is not a distinction without a difference.
It would be appropriate to say that Palestinians are starving if they were the victims of a natural catastrophe or an act of God, such as a drought. One could say that Palestinians are starving if crops could not be grown and grass were burned so the animals could not graze, such as in Sudan. When natural disasters damage the food supply, people go hungry and starve to death. That brand of horror is called famine. If a massive swarm of locusts descends upon an area, consuming all vegetation in their path and causing widespread damage to crops, this would be another cause of famine. As with drought, people would go hungry and starve to death.
That’s not what’s happening in Gaza. In Gaza, there is food relief available. There is medical aid available. Both are rotting in trucks on the border because Israel will not allow them into the country. People are not starving. They are being starved. Israel’s final solution to its “Palestinian problem” is to weaponize food and medical aid to starve the Palestinians into submission and ethnically cleanse them from their homeland.
Leaders in the Israeli government such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gavir, Bezalel Smotrich, and their American guardians such as President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Congress are complicit in these heinous crimes. They have chosen to deny water, food and aid to Palestinians as Israel continues its inhumane assault on children, women, medical professionals, press correspondents covering the genocide and international aid workers.
According to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers in Gaza have been ordered to deliberately fire upon desperate Palestinians near aid distribution sites over the past month. Doctors say aid distribution sites have become ‘a slaughterhouse’ as Palestinians have been lured to their deaths under the pretense of receiving aid. Over 550 Palestinians were killed trying to get aid in the month of June alone.
After years of using precise calculations to limit Palestinians daily caloric intake, denying access to potable water, polluting accessible water with sewage and within the last week preventing Palestinian fisherman access to the Mediterranean Sea, the Zionist Israeli government claims it will allow a limited amount of food aid into limited areas. Please visit www.ourweekly.com to read more.
Dr. Wilmer Leon is a nationally broadcast radio talk-show host. Author of Politics Another Perspective. Host of the podcast Connecting the Dots w/ Dr. Wilmer Leon. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com © 2025 InfoWave Communications, LLC