Starvation is a weapon of war and Gazans are paying the price | Don't Call Me Resilient
The podcast Don't Call Me Resilient aims to "dive into conversations with experts and real people to make sense of the news, from an anti-racist perspective".
In this episode (March 21st 2024), journalist Vinita Srivastava interviews Hilal Elver —professor and global distinguished fellow at the Resnick Food Law and Policy Center of UCLA Law School, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food— about the ongoing famine in Gaza.
Extracts from the podcast :
"Scholars of famine say that this is, in fact, the worst food deprivation they have observed in war since the Second World War.
And under international law, intentional starvation of a population is considered a war crime."
"We are talking about a very small area, which is the Gaza Strip, and since 2007 this area was under siege anyway. More than 60% of Gazans were under humanitarian aid since 2007. And thinking about [what the situation has turned into] recently, this becomes even more horrific than we can even imagine.
[...]
When it started on October 7, of course, nothing had started on October 7. [...] Yes, it was a terrible attack. But the collective punishment is unheard of, because 100% of Gazans —women, children, young, old, Hamas, non Hamas— everyone is under the same situation and there is no way to escape.
[...]
It was already an extremely crowded area. [...] It was a terrible case before and now it's beyond our imagination."
"Now [the United Nations] are in the situation to make [a famine] announcement. This is also problematic because these announcements become geopolitical issues, because the governments don't want to do this. Possibly they say "oh, they died because they had some conditions, they had combinations of diseases", but in Gaza "conditions" mean unhealthy situation, no clean water, not any kind of sanitation, no hospital. [...] There is no medicine, and these children die from not being able to have food, [or from] communicable diseases that could easily be treated if there was medicine. So in a war situation, these "conditions" [are correlated]."
"Humanitarian aid, very strangely, in Gaza, becomes a subject of the negotiation.
[...]
Until the end of October, Israel never let even one truck into Gaza. Then, because of the international pressure, they started to give the humanitarian aid permission, but what they were doing was very cumbersome investigations, hours and days trucks were staying there. [...] If there's a tent in the humanitarian aid, they return completely the entire aid.
[...]
Israel is deliberately keeping the humanitarian aid as difficult as possible. And we are fighting with time right now. We have 1 million people, 50% are in severe danger. [...] They are trying to make them leave, but there's no place to leave. [...] Everyone knows about it. So what could be done?"
"[Governments] should stop giving any kind of military aid to Israel or any war area. [...] The E.U. is the biggest trade partner of Israel, they can easily make a decision about not investing, not allowing trade to Israel in order to give them a certain kind of limitation.
If you really want to stop this human catastrophe, you have to stop helping them and you have to start isolating them."
"50% of the population is under 18.
[...]
[Because of malnutrition] almost all of them are going to have serious health problems in the future.
Not only health problems, but also brain damage. Between 0 to 2 years old, even over a short period of time of malnutrition [3 months] you lose brain power, [it is] not only immune system problems.
The future generation of Gazans are in serious trouble. Even if we stop the war right now, we're going to lose this generation."
The podcast Don't Call Me Resilient aims to "dive into conversations with experts and real people to make sense of the news, from an anti-racist perspective".
In this episode (March 21st 2024), journalist Vinita Srivastava interviews Hilal Elver —professor and global distinguished fellow at the Resnick Food Law and Policy Center of UCLA Law School, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food— about the ongoing famine in Gaza.
Extracts from the podcast :
"Scholars of famine say that this is, in fact, the worst food deprivation they have observed in war since the Second World War.
And under international law, intentional starvation of a population is considered a war crime."
"We are talking about a very small area, which is the Gaza Strip, and since 2007 this area was under siege anyway. More than 60% of Gazans were under humanitarian aid since 2007. And thinking about [what the situation has turned into] recently, this becomes even more horrific than we can even imagine.
[...]
When it started on October 7, of course, nothing had started on October 7. [...] Yes, it was a terrible attack. But the collective punishment is unheard of, because 100% of Gazans —women, children, young, old, Hamas, non Hamas— everyone is under the same situation and there is no way to escape.
[...]
It was already an extremely crowded area. [...] It was a terrible case before and now it's beyond our imagination."
"Now [the United Nations] are in the situation to make [a famine] announcement. This is also problematic because these announcements become geopolitical issues, because the governments don't want to do this. Possibly they say "oh, they died because they had some conditions, they had combinations of diseases", but in Gaza "conditions" mean unhealthy situation, no clean water, not any kind of sanitation, no hospital. [...] There is no medicine, and these children die from not being able to have food, [or from] communicable diseases that could easily be treated if there was medicine. So in a war situation, these "conditions" [are correlated]."
"Humanitarian aid, very strangely, in Gaza, becomes a subject of the negotiation.
[...]
Until the end of October, Israel never let even one truck into Gaza. Then, because of the international pressure, they started to give the humanitarian aid permission, but what they were doing was very cumbersome investigations, hours and days trucks were staying there. [...] If there's a tent in the humanitarian aid, they return completely the entire aid.
[...]
Israel is deliberately keeping the humanitarian aid as difficult as possible. And we are fighting with time right now. We have 1 million people, 50% are in severe danger. [...] They are trying to make them leave, but there's no place to leave. [...] Everyone knows about it. So what could be done?"
"[Governments] should stop giving any kind of military aid to Israel or any war area. [...] The E.U. is the biggest trade partner of Israel, they can easily make a decision about not investing, not allowing trade to Israel in order to give them a certain kind of limitation.
If you really want to stop this human catastrophe, you have to stop helping them and you have to start isolating them."
"50% of the population is under 18.
[...]
[Because of malnutrition] almost all of them are going to have serious health problems in the future.
Not only health problems, but also brain damage. Between 0 to 2 years old, even over a short period of time of malnutrition [3 months] you lose brain power, [it is] not only immune system problems.
The future generation of Gazans are in serious trouble. Even if we stop the war right now, we're going to lose this generation."
1/2Don’t Call Me Resilient
Vinita speaks with Hilal Elver, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and current research professor of Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, about the looming famine in Gaza after months of Israeli attacks.
Mnémosyne's Echo Chamber
Starvation is a weapon of war and Gazans are paying the price | Don't Call Me Resilient The podcast Don't Call Me Resilient aims to "dive into conversations with experts and real people to make sense of the news, from an anti-racist perspective". In this…
"We are talking about impunity.
[...]
International humanitarian law is basically protecting civilians in times of war. [It was] constantly violated. International criminal law is when the violations occur, they are the court, they are the prosecution, they are bringing justice to that kind of serious humanitarian violation. But the International Court of Justice is not a criminal court. It's a regular court. At the end of whatever the decision will be done, it will not be a criminal decision. They are investigation whether or not a crime of genocide occurred or not.
[...]
The international system is based on consensus. If there is no consensus, international law cannot be implemented ; or if there is no unity in the Security Council, [the permanent members] can block [a resolution].
For instance, the Ukraine case was blocked by Russia, and the Palestine case is blocked by the United States. There's always a good friend in the Security Council to escape. So there's a strong impunity."
"Things are slightly changing. There is something going on, but it has to be faster.
[...]
Internally, the Israeli citizens are important. If they support the ceasefire, maybe the Israeli government will change. There will be maybe a revolution. The young generation will not be a part of those kinds of atrocities. That's the hope for the young generation. Same thing for Palestinians."
This is a link to the full podcast episode and its uncorrected trannoscript (there are a few minor errors in trannoscription).
[...]
International humanitarian law is basically protecting civilians in times of war. [It was] constantly violated. International criminal law is when the violations occur, they are the court, they are the prosecution, they are bringing justice to that kind of serious humanitarian violation. But the International Court of Justice is not a criminal court. It's a regular court. At the end of whatever the decision will be done, it will not be a criminal decision. They are investigation whether or not a crime of genocide occurred or not.
[...]
The international system is based on consensus. If there is no consensus, international law cannot be implemented ; or if there is no unity in the Security Council, [the permanent members] can block [a resolution].
For instance, the Ukraine case was blocked by Russia, and the Palestine case is blocked by the United States. There's always a good friend in the Security Council to escape. So there's a strong impunity."
"Things are slightly changing. There is something going on, but it has to be faster.
[...]
Internally, the Israeli citizens are important. If they support the ceasefire, maybe the Israeli government will change. There will be maybe a revolution. The young generation will not be a part of those kinds of atrocities. That's the hope for the young generation. Same thing for Palestinians."
This is a link to the full podcast episode and its uncorrected trannoscript (there are a few minor errors in trannoscription).
2/2Mnémosyne's Echo Chamber pinned «Starvation is a weapon of war and Gazans are paying the price | Don't Call Me Resilient The podcast Don't Call Me Resilient aims to "dive into conversations with experts and real people to make sense of the news, from an anti-racist perspective". In this…»
! TO ALL EUROPEAN CITIZENS IN THIS CHANNEL !
Ban on conversion practices in the European Union
"Objectives :
We call on the European Commission to propose a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ citizens in the European Union:
Conversion Practices are interventions aimed at changing, repressing or suppressing the sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression of LGBTQ+ persons.
Such practices, due to their discriminatory, degrading, harmful and fraudulent nature have been qualified as torture by the United Nations, and are currently being banned in a growing number of States.
The EU plays a key role in the protection of fundamental rights and should take actions to fight against all inhuman practices. The Commission should propose a directive adding conversion practices to the list of euro-crimes and/or amend the ongoing directive on equality (2008) to include a ban on these practices.
Furthermore, to fight against the legislative moratorium, the Commission should also enforce a non-binding resolution calling for a widespread ban of conversion practices in the EU.
Finally, we call on the Commission to amend the Victims’ Rights Directive to establishes minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of conversion practices.
All member states should introduce a ban on conversion practices or review their current ones."
Link : https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home
Ban on conversion practices in the European Union
"Objectives :
We call on the European Commission to propose a binding legal ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ citizens in the European Union:
Conversion Practices are interventions aimed at changing, repressing or suppressing the sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression of LGBTQ+ persons.
Such practices, due to their discriminatory, degrading, harmful and fraudulent nature have been qualified as torture by the United Nations, and are currently being banned in a growing number of States.
The EU plays a key role in the protection of fundamental rights and should take actions to fight against all inhuman practices. The Commission should propose a directive adding conversion practices to the list of euro-crimes and/or amend the ongoing directive on equality (2008) to include a ban on these practices.
Furthermore, to fight against the legislative moratorium, the Commission should also enforce a non-binding resolution calling for a widespread ban of conversion practices in the EU.
Finally, we call on the Commission to amend the Victims’ Rights Directive to establishes minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of conversion practices.
All member states should introduce a ban on conversion practices or review their current ones."
Link : https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home