UN expert calls US aid strategy for Gaza “absurd” in light of Israel’s military support.
Reuters, March 8, Geneva On Friday, a U.N. expert criticized U.S. efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling plans for a temporary port and recent air drops “absurd” and “cynical” approaches as long as Israel receives military support.
Five months into Israel’s assault against Hamas in Gaza, there are fears of impending starvation. In response, the U.S. military has dropped food supplies into Gaza via air and is preparing to establish a makeshift port for humanitarian goods on the country’s Mediterranean coast.
In particular, air drops “will do very little to alleviate hunger malnutrition, and do nothing to slow down famine,” U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri told reporters in Geneva.
He foresaw pandemonium as famished people fought for food. He responded that no one had requested the port. He referred to airdrops and ports as “last resort” measures.
“The time when countries use air drops, and these maritime piers, is usually if not always, in situations when you want to deliver humanitarian aid into enemy territory,” he stated.
The comments made late on Friday elicited no immediate response from the American embassy in Geneva.
As long as Washington keeps arming Israel with military support, Fakhri, a Lebanese-Canadian law professor appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to record and offer advice on global food security, said such measures made little sense.
U.S. legislation, opens new tab, envisions Israel receiving an additional $17.6 billion in military support while it fights Hamas, which it believes is responsible for the fatal strikes that occurred on October 7.
That goes beyond simple allyship. That would be a marriage. Regarding the current aid measures, he saw them as a “performance to try to meet a domestic audience with (US presidential) elections around the corner” and stated, “It’s almost incomprehensible.”
“That’s the only rational coherent interpretation (for these aid announcements) because …from a humanitarian perspective, from an international perspective, from a human rights perspective, it is absurd in a dark, cynical way,” he stated.
The Geneva Human Rights Council heard testimony from Fakhri on Thursday, who has been critical of Israel on social media, alleging that Israel is undermining Gaza’s food system as part of a larger “starvation campaign”. Israel’s representative referred to this as a fabrication and categorically denied limiting supplies entering Gaza.
Emma Farge reported, and William Maclean edited.
