Israel's restrictions to Gaza aid may be war crime, says UN rights office

Israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid for Gaza may amount to a starvation tactic that could be a war crime, the United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday. The stark appraisal followed a U.N.-backed report on Monday saying famine is likely by May without an end to fighting in the more than five-month war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
"The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime," said the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
While aid agencies blame Israel for blockading Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government says it is facilitating aid and the United Nations and relief groups are at fault for any issues over the quantity and pace of delivery.

kirbowo808,
kirbowo808 avatar

Maybe a war crime? It definitely is a war crime!

livus,
livus avatar

Definitely but OHCHR will probably use cautious language until it has a full report.

Maeve,

Does it matter? Will anyone face trial at the Hague?

livus,
livus avatar

@Maeve I think it matters. We have a history of war criminals sometimes being brought to justice several decades after their crimes.

That's why it's important to collect evidence even if the current geopolitical climate suggests people act with impunity.

Maeve,

That's a good point. I may or not have decently functional ASD (I can't afford testing), but there is significant symptom overlap with other conditions; and had a significant head injury about sixteen months ago, and my brain has gotten lazy, at any rate. I'm beginning to exercise it a little more, and more intensely for a few upcoming months. Thank you for pointing out what should have been obvious.

livus,
livus avatar

@Maeve it's not necessarily obvious - many people think I am wrong, and that the status quo can not shift that far in the next 60 years.

Sorry to hear about the head injury - I know how hard they can be to deal with, and I wish you a speedy return to health and confidence in your brain's abilities.

Maeve,

Thank you so very much for your kindness and well wishes. I'm confident in plasticity and compensation. I just need to get serious about training, and I'm quite a bit more fortunate than others who have been much more affected with similar or worse injuries. I survived and am relatively thriving, and I'm so grateful for that.
It's just embarrassing, between that and autocorrect, and it's made me check and recheck my words, since gaslighting is abundant, IRL and online.

livus,
livus avatar

Glad to know you're receiving support and have a good prognosis.

I didn't think about the gaslighting aspect. Silver lining: there are plenty of confidently incorrect people online too, so if you make the occasional blunder nobody will bat an eye!

Maeve,

Literally laughed aloud at the last sentence. Thanks so much for that! There are plenty of confidently incorrect critics, of so many! I think most of us seem to be our own worst critics, I'm just neither confident whether in correct or incorrect; and maybe that's not a bad way to be.

livus,
livus avatar

I think it's not a bad way to be; you're probably in better company!

Betrand Russell complained that "the fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts," but Dunning Kruger syndrome makes me think that having doubt is not necessarily as bad as it sounds.

Maeve,

Thank you. It's so odd when "joke theories" like Dunning Kruger and quantum physics pan out. Wonder if the Drake equation will yield hard evidence, in our lifetimes? I realize the numbers are estimates, but it is very tasty mind candy, for me (I still don't think public congressional hearings held in the USA were a good use of the public's time and money, though, nor Cingress' either). Entertaining but there's other ways to have better spent irretrievable resources.

livus,
livus avatar

@Maeve that is an intriguing one. I'd forgotten about the Drake equation. Our lives are changing so fast it seems possible.

I find myself sort of torn when it comes to space (and art). On one hand I find the resources spent on it really questionable when there's so much in the world we still need resources for. And then on the other hand my mind ... wants to have nice things to contemplate!

Maeve, (edited )

Art and science are necessities and we have the resources to afford both, but for the ultragreedy. Was it Ghandj or Krishnamurti who said, "when the whole world understands enough is enough, the whine world will have enough"? Maybe neither. And someone else said we should always let our reach exceed our grasp. Our litter reaches the stars, no reason we shouldn't. I don't think Vorgol* is interested in cleaning it up, and it's our mess, so we should clean it. Yeah, I'm a dreamer.

*Twice I saw Google autocorrect correct this, and corrected it back a third time. TIL Google autocorrect is worse than iOS.

some_guy,

Fuck Israel.

Maeve,

I do understand your sentiment and also want to point out there are plenty of Israeli who find their government's and compatriot's thoughts, words and deeds abhorrent.

nokturne213,

Just add it to their list that no one seems to be doing anything about.

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