There’s no denying that there is widespread hunger in Gaza.
There’s also no denying that Israel has a responsibility to alleviate that hunger and provide much-needed aid to the Gazans.
All of the Israel advocates who post on social media that never in history has the party that was attacked been responsible for feeding the attacker miss the point. The IDF itself has said it controls some 75% of Gaza after nearly two years into the war initiated by Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israel.
That means that until a diplomatic solution is agreed upon, Israel bears the weight of providing the basic needs for that population.
Having said that, is there a famine or starvation taking place? It depends on whom you ask. There’s so much disinformation out there aimed at demonizing Israel, and the world’s media plays right into it with little or no oversight.
International media pushing Gaza starvation narrative
Case in point is the fiasco at The New York Times, which, along with other media outlets, published a huge photo last week of a Gazan mother holding her emaciated toddler.
“Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq, who said he was born healthy but was recently diagnosed with severe malnutrition,” the original caption said.
Since then, however, it came to light that the boy wasn’t suffering from malnutrition but from a congenital health disorder. The full photo that was cropped in the NYT showed Mahammed’s older brother, clearly not suffering from malnutrition.
The anemic clarification the NYT published on Tuesday was too little too late, as the damage portraying Israel as starving children was done.
In another incident this week, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency responsible for aid in Gaza, denounced the use of photographs of another emaciated Gazan boy, saying he had been evacuated for medical treatment to Italy in June. Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano featured five-year-old Osama Al-Rakab last week in a story alleging starvation in Gaza. He had previously appeared in photos published by The Guardian and Al Jazeera, among other media outlets.
The Foreign Ministry went on the attack, issuing a statement that the boy suffered from cystic fibrosis and had even traveled to Italy for treatment with Israel’s support.
“This is what a modern blood libel looks like: A sick child. A hijacked photo. A lie that spreads faster than truth,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in a social-media post. “He has cystic fibrosis, a serious genetic illness. He’s been in Italy receiving treatment since June 12. Israel enabled his medical transfer from Gaza. But that didn’t stop media outlets from weaponizing his image NOT to tell his story, but in order to smear Israel.”
If there was full-fledged starvation in Gaza – and we’re not saying there isn’t – shouldn’t the Gazans, whom the international media rely on for information from the enclave, have been able to find real victims instead of the fake images that were printed?
Or is it enough to form a thesis that Israel is to blame for all of Gaza’s ills and then find any proof, distorted or not, to back it up?
Respected Israeli journalist Matti Friedman, in a long-form article published this week, described the coverage of the war in Gaza in chilling terms. He wrote: “The transformation of truth-telling institutions into ideological megaphones has had a high price for citizens in liberal societies and for the institutions themselves, as we’re now seeing at places like Harvard and NPR.”
There is no accurate and reliable address to believe when it comes to the situation on the ground in Gaza. As Friedman wrote: “The ‘Gaza Health Ministry,’ from which many of the reports from the mainstream international media rely on, answers to Hamas; UN-related organizations are embroiled in various forms of collaboration with Hamas.”
“The result is a successful information campaign that uses Palestinian suffering, real and imagined, to catalyze international anger and tie Israel’s hands,” he wrote.
While the world blames Israel for starving Gazans, a report issued this week by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which supports the implementation of peace-building, humanitarian, and development projects, revealed that there may be other culprits.
According to UN data, from May 19-July 29 of this year, 87% of its 2,010 food trucks in Gaza (85% by tonnage) were “intercepted” – either peacefully by crowds or forcefully by armed actors. That means only 13% of the food meant for hungry Gazans arrived at the proper address.
Yes, Israel shares in the responsibility of what is taking place in Gaza. But by blaming the Jewish state alone, and by publishing distorted and erroneous photos and information, the rest of the world is culpable in demonizing Israel and emboldening Hamas.