By Seth Mandel
Monday, February
17, 2025
Turns out you really can prove a negative, some of the
time.
Israeli researchers have released a study of the food aid
allowed into Gaza during the current war and—surprise!—there was no genocide,
no starvation policy, no manmade famine. (At least none made by Israel.)
As Haaretz
reports, possibly through gritted teeth:
“In the study, Israeli researchers and doctors examined
the quantity and nutrient composition of the food that aid organizations
brought into Gaza during the study period in order to examine whether they met
the ‘Sphere’ international standards for nutrition for a population in a
humanitarian crisis.
“Between January and July 2024, 478,229 tons of food
entered the Gaza Strip in 28,734 shipments by land, sea, and air, the study
found. The quantity of food provided an average of 3,004 calories per person
per day, based on 98 grams of protein, 61 grams of fat, and 23 milligrams of
iron.”
Israeli officials have been saying this throughout the
war: They let in 3,000 calories per person per day, more than the estimated daily caloric intake
recommended by the FDA. In fact, 3,000 calories is markedly more
than required, according to the FDA, for everyone but active males.
And before anyone suggests that this seven-month average
could be thanks to one or even two months of very high levels of food aid,
worry not: Of the seven months studied, per-person calorie levels surpassed the
recommended minimum in six of them. The outlier was a month in which major
combat operations coincided with Israeli activists’ efforts to sabotage the aid
caravans’ ability to travel through the crossings.
Crucially, the study points out: “While reliable data do
not exist for critical dimensions of food access and consumption across Gaza,
these estimates suggest that adequate amounts of nutritious food were being
transported into the Gaza Strip during most of the first half of 2024.”
In other words, Israel did its part. And here’s where the
actual war crime comes in: We know for a fact that Hamas hijacked aid convoys,
hoarded food and resold some of it at marked-up prices while keeping the rest
for themselves, and even shot Gazans who tried to accept food-aid deliveries.
It is not enough to merely say Israel was in compliance
with its obligations under humanitarian law. Israel arguably went above and
beyond its obligations. The rule
governing food aid states that parties to a war must “permit the free
passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs,” but there are conditions
that mitigate those obligations. Namely, if the permitting country has
legitimate reason to fear:
“(a) that the consignments may be
diverted from their destination,
(b) that the control may not be
effective, or
(c) that a definite advantage may
accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy through the substitution
of the above-mentioned consignments for goods which would otherwise be provided
or produced by the enemy or through the release of such material, services or
facilities as would otherwise be required for the production of such goods.”
Hamas was diverting the aid; Hamas was making it
difficult to control its distribution; Hamas gained a definite advantage from
Israel’s generosity by ensuring the terrorist government’s army received the
lion’s share of the goods and sold the rest for profit, thus preventing Hamas
from having to feed its civilian population while providing a steady flow of
illicit funds and an avenue for smuggling non-food items.
Despite these factors, Israel kept up the flow of aid
into Gaza. There is, in fact, no case against the Israeli government on this
count at all.
And what of so-called humanitarian organizations?
Sometimes United Nations agencies refused to complete deliveries because of the
possibility of hijacking by Hamas, and sometimes they refused because they
didn’t want to follow basic customs-declaration laws. Whatever the reasons, as
Israel’s Channel
12 has documented, tons of aid sat inside Gaza expiring in the sun instead
of getting delivered to Gazans.
Israel upheld its wartime obligations, but it’s hard to
find anyone else who did.
No comments:
Post a Comment