Abundance and starvation

Sadly, while those words have stayed with me ever since, there have been more genocides, famines, civil wars and other situations where the images of starvation and death from hunger have insulted our wishes for a better world. In many of those situations, most of the people could have been saved from the ravages they endured but for the inaction of others, rendering the mantra “never again” meaningless. 

Sunday morning started with my quick check of the news online and there was a Palestinian child, emaciated, in his mother’s arms in Gaza. The death and destruction which started with the shocking slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and others and the taking of hostages on Oct. 7 by Hamas, followed by the Israeli government’s invasion and bombardment of Gaza, have now continued for nearly two years. While there is dispute over the actual number of Palestinians killed since Oct. 7, the most conservative estimates range from 60,000 to 70,000. While things were terrible for Palestinians in Gaza the entire time, things turned considerably worse when the Republican administration took power in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20. Restraints on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu evaporated, and, with the dismantling of the United Nations and various NGOs providing food and medical aid to Palestinians, replaced by a U.S. government nonprofit contractor (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) setting up several aid distribution sites “defended” by armed mercenaries, things became much worse. 

Aid seekers approaching and leaving these aid centers have been pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, fired at with rubber bullets and stun grenades, and many Palestinians have been gunned down. One Israeli soldier told a reporter that the approaches to the aid centers had become “killing fields,” a reference to the 1.3 million people killed in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. A U.S. military officer/retiree who worked for the contractors filed this video story: bit.ly/4fgY7Kp.

Given the huge distance people had to walk to reach these aid centers, families were sending younger and stronger men and boys to collect the food and bring it back to the more fragile family members, and it was these young men who became the targets of the Israeli military and mercenaries. With the outrage over at least 700 Palestinians seeking aid at these centers reportedly killed, the U.S. contractor announced a “women’s only” day, implicitly promising women would be safer collecting food. It didn’t work out that way. The BBC reported one woman’s story:

“There was a huge crowd of women and the place seemed out of control, they couldn’t offload and distribute the aid. They started spraying the women with pepper spray, then they brought stun grenades and started throwing them on the women to force them backwards.” She and her sister got split up. Khawla’s clothes were full of pepper spray and so she called her sister, agreeing to meet at their brother’s house. Something wasn’t right. The person who answered her next call said her sister was shot in the head and killed.

The Israeli government recently announced it would open safe passages and allow other aid organizations to provide food and medical care, and that Israel would be dropping food boxes from the air. Good. There should never have been such needless suffering, starvation and death.

Last Saturday, Hamas posted propaganda videos of some of the hostages, also emaciated, looking near death. Hamas should release all the hostages and lay down their arms. Israel should declare a ceasefire. The United Nations should send in peacekeepers, and Palestinian and Israeli mothers should be chosen to negotiate a two-state solution for lasting peace. 

May Israelis and Palestinians some day live with as much abundance as I see at our farmers’ market and say never again to war. 

Craig Wiesner is the co-owner of Reach And Teach, a book, toy and cultural gift shop on San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos. Follow Craig: craigwiesner.bsky.social.