How Can The Media Narrative Be So Far From The Facts? Gaza Famine Lies

Reports of "imminent" famine in Gaza have been greatly exaggerated. In March, a cooperative of transnational organizations directing the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projected "catastrophic food insecurity" conditions for 1.1 million people -- half of the Gaza Strip's population -- by May. 

As May's final hours dwindle, that catastrophe has yet to materialize. "The notion of a famine in Gaza, that we've seen no evidence for," is "being created ... by ... the commercial or mainstream media, by the U.N., and by Hamas," Columbia University professor Ran Kivetz protested on "Washington Watch."

To no one's surprise, the Anti-Semites of the World United have blamed Israel for creating the famine conditions they wish to exist in Gaza. "International officials continue to accuse Israel of creating famine conditions in Gaza," noted Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice, "even as research demonstrates that the root cause of suffering in Gaza is Hamas."

Yet Israel is allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza faster than aid organizations can distribute it. "The amount of food that is being supplied into Gaza by Israel, by the United States, by the Egyptians, including local production ... is sufficient," Kivetz declared. 

According to an April analysis he co-wrote with fellow Columbia University professor Awi Federgruin, "290,000 tons of food and beverages have been delivered to Gaza since October," according to Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), enough to supply each of Gaza's two million residents with "1.82 pounds of food daily." 

Based on U.N. estimates, they added, aid imported through Israel is "enough to supply 50% of Gazans' daily consumption needs -- on top of the food they continue to produce themselves."

Situated on the Mediterranean Sea's fertile coastal plain, the Gaza Strip was "self-sufficient in fruits and vegetables" before the war, wrote Kivetz and Federgruin, and they cited the most recent U.N. data to show that three-quarters of Gaza's greenhouse data were still available in mid-February. Furthermore, they noted, according to COGAT, Gazan bakeries "can still provide 'over two million breads, rolls, and pita breads a day.'"

Israel isn't the only source of food for Gazans, but it has allowed enough food to comprise half of the population's daily consumption.

In large part due to the generosity of Israel, the Gaza Strip has not reached catastrophic famine conditions. "Obviously, in a war zone, you will have disruptions of the food supply and so on," Kivetz granted, but "I don't think we've seen evidence of famine -- of widespread starvation, heaven forbid, or famine -- in Gaza."

Yet "that's the story. That's the narrative that's being put out there," Hice noted. International media and commentators have generated rumors of a famine to blame it on Israel, even though such a famine likely does not exist.

So far are these rumors from the truth that, "if you compare the amount of food per capita (per individual) that has been supplied into Gaza, compared to the average food consumption in Asia and Africa ... it's even higher in Gaza," contended Kivetz.

How can the prevailing narrative be so contrary to the facts? On one level, the only explanation is that Satan, who rules this world as "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), is also "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). 

On another level, there is a human agent with a vested interest in broadcasting such a false narrative. That party is the terrorist group Hamas, who started the war by murdering Israeli civilians and has conducted the war by abusing Gazan civilians.

"Part of the supply chain problem" is "the chaos in war, but part of it is Hamas," insisted Kivetz, "which has been hoarding and stealing food, which has been firing at the entry points, in fact killing some Israeli soldiers in some of the entry points where food is being provided."

"A third-grade student would understand Hamas has an absolute incentive to create stories of famine and starvation and deaths," Kivetz declared. "The more civilians who die in Gaza, the better off Hamas is because they want Israel to stop. ... After conduct[ing] their terrible atrocities, they want to escape this and still remain in power."

"So Hamas really is incentivized, then, to block food and aid," Hice responded, "particularly if they are able to manipulate the media and the U.N. to blame it on Israel."

In fact, in "the recent decisions by the International Court of Justice [ICJ], [and] the International Criminal Court [ICC] ... Hamas is getting what it wants," specualted Kivetz. ICC prosecutors recently indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the preposterous charge of starving Palestinians, while the ICJ on Friday ordered Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah" -- Hamas's last remaining stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

These preposterous accusations are fulfilling their intended effect: consolidating international opinion against Israel. Josep Borrell, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, recently declared, "Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine." The truth is, Hamas is trying to use starvation as a weapon of war, while Israel is effectively forestalling a famine.

"To your question about who is propagating or creating this story of famine," Kivetz summarized, "obviously Hamas is interested in that. The U.N. unfortunately, is part of that. They use data that Hamas is providing. The data is wrong."

Originally published at The Washington Stand