WEAPONISATION of starvation is going on in Palestine to evict the remaining population to make more room for Israeli settlers. The unlawful transformation of Palestinians into refugees raises questions about the legitimacy of the genocidal starvation. This is a violation of the basic human right to access food. Palestinians are perishing silently, and their resistance is crumbling to the ground. International media can do nothing but display malnourished bodies to seek sympathy from viewers. The reluctant silence of the conscientious individuals unleashes a deadly punch on the face of the Palestinians. As a result, debilitating feelings control our exposure to images.
Imposed hunger is everywhere; not a single strip of land is spared from its ominous effect. Food is the most precious item on a land devoid of fuel for the body. Our bodies are designed to consume food and water to produce energy. The basic design of human anatomy, used to create enthusiasm to fight, is forced to sag. A child carrying a heavy sack of flour knows the harsh reality of life, penned by remorseless monsters. Infants without baby food pass away from this unjust world. Our conscience does not wake up even after seeing the emaciated bodies of children. We can neither help nor remain silent in this situation. Our helplessness consumes our existence as human beings when we see the perpetrators get away with their war crimes for the time being.
Animals are also starving in Palestine due to the artificial crisis created by the Israeli settlers. When humans are deprived of food, animals do not receive their share. Animals have become mere skin and bone. They have nowhere to go or escape. The severity of starvation is taking its toll on both human and animal lives. Ribcages and the backbones of humans and animals become prominent under the skin and declare the oppression and tyranny of Zionist genocide. An oppression of any kind is a reversible zero-sum game. The accumulated cases of victims make the ground fertile for future oppression by the oppressed. If allowed to continue, the vicious cycle will find its victims among the oppressors.
The systematic annihilation of a populace before the entire world does not meet any resistance from any country. The Zionists, being historically informed of the Jewish people who faced starvation in Nazi Germany, are replicating the same model in Palestine. Palestinians wait for planes to drop relief from above. If they see one, they look up at the sky until it vanishes into the horizon. Relief tied to parachutes falls to the ground, apparently providing relief from the pangs of hunger.听Armed Israeli soldiers shoot down those who gather to collect relief. The victims, according to the plan, are first lured by the food and then mowed down by the merciless settlers.
If they succeed in getting a portion of relief, then they consider themselves fortunate. Those who fail would go hungry due to the fault of the Zionist agenda in this world. To make one鈥檚 selfish life prosper, one cannot step on the shoulders of the downtrodden people. The Palestinians are forced to experience atrocious famine to eliminate them from the so-called promised land. One鈥檚 promised land becomes someone else鈥檚 nightmare. When children die of malnutrition, the remaining people wait for the silver lining in the cloud. But the Zionist colonisers forget that no matter how hard they try, they cannot obliterate the population. The Palestinians will rise from the ashes of hunger and famine to reclaim their motherland.
Bottles full of grains and lentils with written notes are thrown into the ocean to find the shore of Palestine. Hope keeps the dream of feeding the hungry alive in the age of toxic Zionism. The ocean waves help bottles reach the Palestinian coast to assuage the hunger of helpless civilians. The minimal help the fortunate people can provide becomes the lifeline for the victims. If we all threw bottles of grain into the ocean to help fight starvation in Palestine, then it would be a significant step towards humanity鈥檚 triumph.
The Palestinian people do not want any relief. They want to be free from the shackles of oppressive occupation. They want a dignified life with their rights safeguarded as human beings. When they are turned into scavengers, we are emotionally shocked and intellectually castrated. When respect is taken away from them, we become speechless. When we see them jostle for scanty relief, we look for a place to hide our shame and inability to act. The survival of the fittest game is being run in Palestine. The conscientious individuals curse the Israeli government for their deliberate food scarcity created in Palestine.
Zionism is a big threat to the security and existence of the Palestinians. It is spreading like malignant tumours in the world. The cancerous growth destroys healthy human relationships. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships are jeopardised by Zionism鈥檚 deadly sting. Like racism, it demolishes human equality and tries to establish a hierarchy of ascribed identity. The subscriber of this spiteful ideology should realise that this world needs compassionate companions, not murderers, to unlock a better future.
The Israeli settlers apply the method of European colonisers to dispossess the Palestinians. Having killed many colonised people, the descendants of European colonisers now chant the slogan of human rights. Israel, being an illegal state, unleashes the reign of terror to cultivate the culture of fear and anxiety. The atrocities inflicted on the Palestinians will wait for their turn for vengeance. The settlers seem to forget the old saying that what goes around comes around.
We protest against Israeli occupation and genocide through starvation in Palestine. We say: stop genocide through starvation. Stop the oppression of helpless victims. Stop the stupidity against humanity. Stop the annihilation of humans based on identities. Stop plundering the resources听of someone else鈥檚 land. Stop the dispossession of one鈥檚 motherland. Stop the cruel drama. Stop the silence and indifference.听We invite the whole world to rise against normalised monstrosity in Palestine, break the silence, and restore the rights of Palestinians as humans.
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Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam is an anthropologist and a faculty member at Independent University Bangladesh.
