In imperialist capitalism, rights are only formal. Israel uses hunger as a weapon of war. Genocide must be stopped through global solidarity and mobilization. Humanity faces a determining choice: Socialism or Barbarism
By Rubén Tzanoff
Rights are Dead Letter
Multiple treaties, statements and other legal mechanisms of the so-called “International Community” establish food as a human right.
However, global statistics point in the opposite direction. In 2023, nearly 733 million people suffered from chronic hunger. In 2024, over 295 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity. Around 38 million children under the age of five suffered from acute malnutrition, up to 3.1 million of them died from it each year, and 18.2 million babies were born into hunger. (Reuters, UNICEF, and Save the Children)
These figures are partial, but clearly indicate that imperialist capitalism degrades basic rights into permanent needs.
The scourge of hunger, inherent to the system, becomes even more horrific when systematic blockades are deepened and used as a weapon to kill.
From Structural Hunger to Hunger as a Weapon of War
Since its imposition, the State of Israel has besieged the Palestinian population to strengthen its colonial occupation.
In the latest chapter of genocide and ethnic cleansing, it is also using hunger as a tool, alongside bombing and mass destruction.
The results are clear: since October 2023, more than 2.1 million people in Gaza have faced critical food insecurity, and half a million are in extreme famine. The UN has warned that the entire population is at risk of starvation, about 70,500 children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and 12,000 of them are in critical condition.
The Zionists have caused this catastrophe by destroying farmland, essential service infrastructure, bakeries and other food sources, and by blocking the entry of humanitarian aid.
The outrage and rejection we feel in the face of these crimes still need space to fully unfold…
When You Look for Rice and Receive Bullets
Zionist forces reach new levels of atrocity when they open fire on people seeking food.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed that in just one month—between May 26 and June 27—613 Palestinian civilians were killed while attempting to access food aid. Of these, 509 were killed at sites managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by the U.S. and Israel, and 104 near convoys coordinated by other agencies.
In Khan Younis, Rafah, Tahlia, and other areas in southern Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have turned food distribution into a death trap, as their soldiers shoot unarmed civilians—something revealed by an investigation in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and acknowledged by the Israeli military itself.
Palestinians waiting for food distribution by the highly questioned GHF (Uncredited / AP-LaPresse)
Emulating Imperialist Colonialism
On its own scale, Zionism recycles methods already used by major colonial powers.
Just to name a few examples: the British Empire provoked and intensified famines and the deaths of millions in Soviet Russia (1921), when it participated in the Allied blockade; in the province of Bengal, India (1943), when it destroyed crops, requisitioned transportation, and denied food aid. The Nazis did the same during the siege of Leningrad (September 1941 to January 1944), using mass starvation.
In the face of these events, a timeless reflection remains relevant: “The policy of imperialism cannot eliminate need, it will only make it more painful… Imperialism must be killed so that humankind can continue to exist.” (Trotsky, Report to the Comintern, 1924)
We Must Stop the March Toward Barbarism
Genocide and the violation of human rights are increasingly repudiated by mobilizations around the world. But the cynicism of the powerful continues. Neither the UN, nor the major powers, nor the EU have taken effective measures, while Trump continues to provide weapons and political cover for Netanyahu. We must demand the immediate severance of relations and treaties with Israel and a boycott of all its products!
A mass solidarity movement must break the blockade, put an end to genocide, and fight for a single, secular, non-racist, democratic, and socialist Palestine. The alternative for the Middle East and the entire world is Socialism or Barbarism.
You may also be interested in: “U.S. and Israel Set the Terms: War, Ceasefire, and Ethnic Cleansing“
1. GHF: A private group backed by Israel and the U.S., denounced by Palestinian organizations as imposed without consultation or local oversight and linked to the killings of aid seekers near its facilities. It is currently associated with Israel’s plan for the forced mass exodus of Palestinian civilians from Gaza to Rafah.
