Gaza is Starving

Israel’s decision to install an alternative humanitarian aid mechanism, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), was ostensibly an attempt to circumvent Hamas and other armed militias from stealing aid and either hoarding it or selling it at exorbitant prices to their own starving population.

While it is true that Hamas steals aid and sacrifices its own people to consolidate power, to collectively punish the entire population as a result, as Israel is now effectively doing, is not only a war crime but an entirely ineffective solution.

The idea that starving and terrified Palestinians in Gaza will rise up en masse to overthrow Hamas is a dangerous fantasy. Even Israelis, living in a democracy and largely free from the threat of bombs, shootings, and starvation, have not managed to oust their own government. This belief fundamentally misunderstands the psychology of those who are suffering. People in pain are far more likely to radicalize and turn against those inflicting that pain, becoming more, not less, extreme.

This response is not unique to Palestinians, it is fundamentally human. Yes, many Israelis are protesting the government, calling for an end to the war, the return of the hostages, and an inquiry into October 7. Yet the very “conceptzia” that led to that day, the failure to imagine or prevent such an attack, remains deeply entrenched. There has been no mass reckoning with the dangers of occupation and statelessness. For many, the response to October 7 is more checkpoints, more blockades, more annexation, and harsher rule over Palestinians.

If the Israeli government claims that the GHF is necessary to prevent looting by Hamas because of the suffering this infliicts upon the innocent Palestinians in the Strip, it is a farce. This government has shown no compassion or concern for Palestinian suffering, even prior to the war. In fact, statements by members of the ruling coalition make their disdain explicitly clear.

If, instead, the justification is that Hamas diverts aid from the UN and other international bodies, then Israel must also show a credible plan to build an alternative Palestinian body to administer aid, and eventually, govern. But Israel has done the opposite. The longstanding strategy of Netanyahu and his allies has been to weaken the Palestinian Authority and strengthen Hamas to perpetuate the idea that there is “no partner for peace” and no alternative to continued occupation.

And if the argument, combining all of the above, is that the suffering of civilians is a necessary evil to prevent future threats, then there is no policy alternative to offer here, only a lament. That the Jewish state has allowed starvation, suffering, and death in direct contradiction of our values, our traditions, and our history.

Claims that UNRWA and other agencies are unfit due to the alleged involvement of a few employees in the October 7 terror attacks may have held weight early on. But if a humanitarian agency is unqualified due to minimal infiltration, what does it say about one that causes the deaths of hundreds per week?

Once again, Israel is trying to occupy the position of both strongman and victim. If, as the strongman, you seize control of aid distribution, claiming others are enabling Hamas, then you must use that control to build a better reality. If, on the other hand, you claim to be a victim with no control over the consequences of your actions, then you have no business operating a humanitarian effort that continues to fail, and to kill, through both starvation and violence.

It is understandable that Holocaust comparisons make Jews uncomfortable. Too often, they are weaponized in antisemitic ways. But as Jews, how can we look at the horrifying images emerging from Gaza and not remember our own history? How can we see the skeletal children, the rubble, the starvation, and not think of our elders, our ancestors?

The inadequacy of international statements isn't just because action is overdue, it’s because there are no words to capture the devastation of watching a people with a history of suffering now inflict it on others. There is no language for what that does to our hearts, our minds, our souls - both deeply human and painfully Jewish.

Our trauma does not only activate when Jews are harmed. It is triggered, too, when we see trauma inflicted that echoes our own past. When we ask, "what does it remember like" when we see these images, we are pained when our answer is that it remembers like our very own past.

Yes, aid policy is complex. It involves multiple actors, strategies, risks, and calculations. But complexity is not an excuse for disengagement, it is a call to engage more deeply.

For all those who care about upholding not only human life but humanity, not only about aid but agency, not only about surviving but sovereignty, we must continuously seek the truth, we must continuously seek the answers.

Because in the answer is not merely what we are going to accomplish. It is who our values, morals, and Judaism ask of us to be.