OPINION: Going beyond Israel’s pain – the Jewish response to starvation in Gaza

I am not a Jew, but I understand how isolated and bewildered many Jews now feel at the ebbing away from non-Jewish friends of empathy. In short, how it must feel to be a Jew in Britain today.

Jews have always known that antisemitism is a light sleeper but perhaps not quite how easily it can be roused .  And 7 October has been a huge wake up call.

Those in whom prejudice simmers have been emboldened with a new and brazen confidence that Zionists – any sort of Zionist, for Zionism comes in many forms – is fair game.

We are not yet in Brownshirt territory but there have been glimpses. And the worst is almost certainly yet to come.

Witness the thuggish elements within some pro-Palestinian protests that have ignored the barbarism of Hamas’s genocidal attack. Some have even celebrated it.

Then there’s the self-righteous entitlement that’s licensed protesters to barge into the lives of ordinary citizens on the streets, on campus, in shops and stores and cafes – people who’ve had nothing at all to do with the war in Gaza.

We’ve shuddered at the pious, preposterous insistence by pro-Hamas activists that Koranic-educated members of the Qassam Brigades would never contemplate sexually abusing a woman or hunt down defenceless civilians with grenades and automatic weapons.

Especially demoralising for Jewish people are the insistent efforts by some Hamas supporters and even some activist journalists to undermine and minimise that evidence. Incredibly, even the odd NHS doctor has bought into this nonsense.

There’s something very troubling about this wilful determination to never give the benefit of the doubt to the Jewish side of this conflict, even when the evidence stares them in the face.

We’ve wearily resigned ourselves to the fact that in some mosques and Islamic centres in different parts of Britain ,poison still seeps from pulpits. I recently reviewed 80 post 7 October sermons, mostly after Friday prayers.  I showed them to a senior KC specialising in anti-terrorism legislation. Most urged a Palestinian victory, many in lurid terms, albeit no crime was committed.

But he also assessed some as “stirring up racial hatred” and a handful  that “expressed support for Hamas in a way that encourages other people to support Hamas” – Hamas, of course, being designated terrorist organisation.

We also note that yet again there’s been a failure to condemn these odious manifestations of the swelling pro-Palestinian protest movement from  vocal leaders who aver to represent the broadest spectrum of Britain’s diverse Muslim community.

So far so predictable.

There is no equivalence that I can recall on the Jewish side. Rabbis across the religious spectrum are not stirring up hatred against Muslims. The limited Jewish protest marches have been entirely orderly and low key. Organisations that represent British Jews are not putting out poisonous press releases.

On the other hand, there are some things it might be benefiting for mainstream Jewish leaders – including the Chief Rabbi – to say. Like pointing at the apocalyptic prospect of Gazans starving to death.

There’s something very troubling about this wilful determination to never give the benefit of the doubt to the Jewish side of this conflict, even when the evidence stares them in the face.

It goes without saying that British Jews should never be held responsible for the decisions by the Israeli war cabinet, or any Israeli government policy for that matter, as sometimes they are, if only by implication.

But since the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Chief Rabbi, the Jewish Chronicle (and this newspaper) have all – understandably – expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself, is it not also time they had something to say publicly about Israel’s responsibility to ensure that 1.1m Gazans confronted by the imminent prospect of “catastrophic food insecurity” do not start starving to death?

Yes, Hamas and armed gangs continue to control how some of the aid is distributed once it gets into Gaza. And Egypt has voluntarily aligned itself with the IDF inspection requirements, for the self-interested reason of protecting itself from an exodus of Palestinians.

Israel denies it is obstructing aid into Gaza. Up to now the Americans appear to have disagreed. What is not in doubt is that Israel controls access to Gaza and the inspection of trucks waiting to deliver food and other aid.

But, ultimately, it is now Israel’s responsibility to ensure Gaza’s Palestinians do not die of hunger. And it is within their gift to do so.

Israel denies it is obstructing aid into Gaza. Up to now the Americans appear to have disagreed. What is not in doubt is that Israel controls access to Gaza and the inspection of trucks waiting to deliver food and other aid.

COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) says it has recently introduced “significant new initiatives” that have :improved the humanitarian situation, particularly in northern Gaza”. Except that the amount of aid that’s been getting in has not been regarded by the Americans, the UN, the EU or any aid agency as anything like sufficient. And what is waiting to get in, isn’t being inspected fast enough.

The warning that half of Gaza’s population is at risk of starvation comes from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), who are said to be respected practitioners in the field of global food security.

It has rated the famine in Gaza proportionately more serious than Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

According to the Washington Post, Gaza now has the IPC’s most severe rating since it began reporting in 2004. COGAT says the IPC report is out of date.

Some in Jewish leadership positions may be sceptical that the humanitarian situation is not as dire as reported. But I also know some are privately distressed by the enveloping humanitarian crisis.

Others may be reluctant to voice these publicly because of a need to rally round the flag while Israel is so isolated or anyway not fuel the anti-Israel hatred. Still others may be loath  to voice anything negative about Israel’s actions that more hawkish members of the community might interpret as betrayal. But this is a humanitarian need, not a political one and those who have concerns should voice them.

Some in Jewish leadership positions may be sceptical that the humanitarian situation is not as dire as reported. But I also know some are privately distressed by the enveloping humanitarian crisis.

And surely none of those reasons justifies a collective silence on the overriding principle: that nothing can justify allowing innocent men women and children to starve to death.

Israel’s critics might respond: nothing can justify bombing civilians either.  But there’s a difference: civilian deaths are inevitable in war. Starvation is not. And addressing full-on the humanitarian crisis is not inconsistent with Israel’s war aims to prevent Hamas from repeating 7 October and, of course, the return of the hostages.

Dare I suggest it is time for the Diaspora to speak out and to urge Israel to do whatever it takes to reverse this looming catastrophe. “Dawn… and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night, it lights up a biblical famine in the 20th century”, reported the BBC’s Michael Buerk from Ethiopia in 1987.

When this war is over, the last thing Israel needs is a biblical famine lighting up TV screens around the world. It’s also the last thing the non-combatant citizens of Gaza should have to endure, given all they’ve endured so far.

• John Ware is a British journalist, author, and investigative reporter