I have just been reviewing the scientific literature on famine, malnutrition and what it is like to die of starvation. It is not a quiet drift into oblivion, but a slow torture as the organs shut down one by one, sometimes taking days before inevitable death. Once the process has reached a certain point, medical interventions are ineffective.
This is the torture being visited on people, especially children, in Gaza as the world stands by.
Israel has not only visited this horror on Gaza’s population but has actively hindered the slow process of getting humanitarian aid – medical, clean water and food to the desperate population. Israeli authorities have made entry across the northern border with Lebanon impossible and set stringent inspection and delaying procedures over the remaining entry point for humanitarian aid at the Rafah crossing. A minutely detailed inspection process and re-routing of aid convoys delay humanitarian aid even longer.
Over 31,000 people have died already and many more will do so unless humanitarian aid is allowed to reach Gaza in the next few days.
Children and older people are particularly vulnerable and are innocent victims of Israel’s devastating bombing and ground offensives. There is no functioning hospital left in northern Gaza and the single functioning hospital in southern Gaza, Al-Amal Hospital, is on the verge of complete collapse after Israeli forces targetted it.
Israel has failed to comply with the legally binding order of The International Court of Justice ‘to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid’ and to report back to the ICJ. Israel has done neither.
Canada weakly followed the lead of the USA in withdrawing support from UNWRA because of dubious and unconfirmed claims that a few employees had been involved in the Oct. 7 attacks. UNWRA acted immediately to dismiss any employee who might have been involved (though most have been found innocent since then) and Canada and other states finally restored funding – but not before more Palestinians died as a result of diminished UNWRA aid.
Meanwhile Canada, along with the U.S., continues to send arms to Israel. Despite a feisty effort by the NDP to stop arms export to a genocidal state, the Liberal government continues the practice, using the dubious defence that it cannot cancel previous arms agreements.
Canada can, and should, take immediate and active steps to stop the export of arms to Israel and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza or risk the condemnation of the world and its place in history as a moral actor on the world stage.
Dr. Marilyn Porter,
Research Professor Emerita,
St. John's
