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.
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.
@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!
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.