By Hannan Hussain – Almayadeen
As Gaza’s starvation toll reaches double figures, the West shows no signs of relinquishing arms and other military supplies that are at the heart of occupation belligerence.
How credible is “air dropped” aid and assistance to Gaza when bombs and brutalities dominate the Israeli genocide? Western military supplies continue to flood into occupation arms at the expense of Palestinians, and all those among them that are in the throes of death and destruction.
Look at Washington. It refuses to address this contradiction as it sponsors the Israeli unrelenting onslaught on starving Palestinians. Billions in military aid to the occupation effectively ensure no relief in a fast-spreading famine, calling into question the credibility of so-called US “air drops.”
By opting for such an air drop measure, Washington attempts to justify the Israeli occupation’s denial of critical humanitarian aid via conventional means. The Palestinians’ right to livelihoods and prosperity is unquestionably tied to their own agency, and not the decisions of a power that is hellbent on sponsoring the genocide militarily, politically and financially. The West’s hypocrisy is on full display as it floats rhetoric on peace and stability, but turns a blind eye to growing hunger, rampant famine, and scores of mothers that are struggling to feed their children amid sponsored bombing.
The end goal of such inadequate, hypocritical and condescending aid is not to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian suffering of Palestinians, or provide “essential relief” to civilians. It is to further entrench the Israeli occupation, which has used starvation as an instrument of brazen repression and genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people. “Famine in northern Gaza has reached fatal levels, especially for children, pregnant women and patients with chronic diseases,” said Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. “Thousands of people are at risk of dying of starvation,” he warned.
As Gaza’s starvation toll reaches double figures, the West shows no signs of relinquishing arms and other military supplies that are at the heart of occupation belligerence. The United States has reportedly approved over 100 distinct military sales to Israel since its genocide in Gaza, underlining the farce of recent air-drops and US platitudes to support stability in the enclave. As the current president of Refugees International pointed out to the Washington Post, this is an “extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time” which severely indicates that the Israeli genocidal campaign would “not be sustainable without this level of U.S. support.”
Washington’s proximity to rights groups, aid agencies, and striking UN assessments make clear that it is giving a carte blanche to Israel to step-up its bloodshed against starving Palestinians, and ignoring the humanitarian devastation on-ground. South Africa’s renewed pressure at the International Court of Justice is geared towards addressing that exact hypocrisy, and putting the unimaginable suffering of besieged Palestinians at the forefront of all actions. “The threat of all-out famine has now materialised. The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively ensuring that the rights it has found are threatened under the Genocide Convention are protected,” said the South Africa presidency.
Where is Western protest as the Israelis ban visa access to aid workers due in Gaza? How do millions in so-called Western humanitarian aid square off with billions in bombs and ammunition to the Israeli occupation? The view from the ground-up is that life-saving aid is unilaterally and openly denied without protest from nations that sustain this genocidal status-quo in Gaza. Germany’s own attitude towards Gaza’s unspeakable suffering is a proof point in itself. After all, Berlin claims that the suffering witnessed in Gaza is beyond description, but refuses to end its diplomatic appeasement of Israel to the detriment of peace and autonomy among Palestinians.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees also continues to serve as a prime target of Israeli-U.S. defamation and funding crunch, effectively serving occupation objectives of sustaining Gaza’s widespread human suffering. There is no meaningful deliberation from the West to empower and sustain the core UN assistance mechanism. Instead they acted in unity to cut off lifesaving financial assistance when scores of children fought for survival.
Present Western priorities remain increasingly focused on amplifying the Israeli UNRWA disinformation campaign, and their hypocrisy on a lasting, enduring, and justly negotiated ceasefire makes the West a chief aggressor against the liberties and survival of Palestinians. Now, some of the same Western sponsors of genocidal aggression are contemplating a shift in their cuts of UNRWA funding, desiring acknowledgment. But make no mistake: it is such Western attempts and attitudes that repeatedly trivialize the suffering, autonomy, and independence of Palestinian children and women beyond all bounds.
Thus understood, whether these are condemnable “air drops” or blatant attempts to dehumanize the Palestinians, Western actions on aid and assistance deserve the highest degree of denunciation. Outsized military support for occupation genocide pales any effort to ease humanitarian suffering in Gaza. In turn, this makes their hypocrisy on Palestine clear as day.