Death in Gaza Takes Many Forms: From Calorie Counting to British Custodianship
Mehr News Agency, International Desk, Elnaz Rahmat Nejad: Recent images from Gaza reveal that death wears many faces; one person is killed by direct shelling at locations distributing American-Zionist “humanitarian aid”; another dies holding a piece of bread. Someone else trying to reach a can of tuna is torn apart. Many are trampled beneath those fleeing from Israeli flames. The most merciless form of death manifests as weak ribs, decayed bones, and the sound of hundreds of thousands of empty stomachs.
The Israeli occupation regime uses a policy of “starvation” as an essential tool to break a nation’s will-from blocking seeds from entering Gaza to targeting fishing boats at sea and turning bakeries into military targets. employing hunger as a weapon is not new but continues a colonial pattern deeply rooted in history.Contemporary research on biocolonialism shows control over vital resources-water, food, seeds, soil-has been central to colonial domination across eras.
While tables around the world overflow with food, Gaza only knows hunger on its land and fire falling from its sky. gaza’s children-the most vulnerable-are primary victims of this starvation policy. The people here share not resilience or endurance but ongoing death and famine even within makeshift shelters.
Calorie Counting in Gaza
Hunger has long plagued Gaza’s 365-square-kilometer strip under siege since 2007 by Israel. Leaked documents reveal that before this latest conflict started,Israeli occupiers meticulously calculated the permissible calorie allotment for Gazans-a level allowing Palestinians merely enough sustenance to stay alive.
This nutritional equation recalls similar past calculations where colonial authorities persistent minimum food rations just enough for laborers’ productivity: Caribbean sugar plantation owners precisely measured slaves’ diets merely to keep them working alive. Today’s racist formula persists using more complex tools masked by humanitarian rhetoric.
This raises an crucial question: why does Israel limit itself not just to restricting food entry into Gaza but systematically target food production infrastructure-farms, food factories, bakeries-even olive trees?
The destruction wrought by Israeli forces aims not only at halting current production but also ensures future recovery remains unachievable-a strategy reminiscent of historic colonial wars where crippling local populations’ ability to feed themselves was considered more effective than extermination.
The Legacy of British Mandate Rule in Palestine
The persistence of colonial patterns governing food in Palestinian history is evident. From British Mandate times through Israeli occupation, fundamental changes were imposed on agricultural and food systems-each serving different yet complementary imperial projects.
The British Mandate laid foundations that redefined land ownership while instituting complex regulations transforming traditional Palestinian agriculture into a centrally administered system. Studies show that animal disease laws granting authorities control over movement ruled directly inherited from British mandate legislation later absorbed into Israel’s 1962 laws reflecting clear legal continuity with colonial governance processes.
These laws were more than bureaucratic texts-thay reshaped Palestinians’ relationship with their land through mandatory permits controlling livestock movement and agricultural products while dictating permissible crops-all designed to dismantle traditional farming economies subordinated under colonial authority.
Israeli control over Palestinian food systems extends beyond wartime blockade; it encompasses domination over every production stage-from seeds allowed for use by farmers and irrigation methods employed through transport routes and marketing channels down to Palestinian tables themselves-all monitored under strict regimes claiming public health protection against “contamination.” Yet multiple studies expose these claims as excuses rooted in long histories where medical justifications buttressed economic exploitation aimed at suppressing indigenous peoples deemed potential sources of infection or disruption justified tight controls on their movements.
This system creates utter dependency among Palestinians who face restricted production capacity yet must rely wholly on Israeli goods for basic needs-including vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy products-all funneled through checkpoints controlled by occupying forces. Each meal thus becomes daily evidence reiterating occupation realities.
This model echoes African colonial experiences when diverse subsistence farming gave way entirely toward monoculture cash crops like cotton or cocoa produced predominantly for export rather than local nourishment.
Famine: A Historical Lesson
The use of hunger today as a weapon of war, vividly seen in Gaza’s siege corresponds with ugly historic precedents revealing entrenched imperial methods.The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852),stands out dramatically illustrating how starvation served genocidal aims: while Irish staples were exported profitably to Britain millions starved or fled emigration en masse.
The English government played active roles exacerbating suffering via economic policies forbidding cheap imports even amid widespread destitution enforcing humiliating relief conditions requiring labor jobs barely compensated beyond minimal rations.
In India during British Raj rule famine struck repeatedly across greater scales with deadly precision:Bengal famine (1943), which claimed estimated three million lives proceeded despite grain exports continuing supporting World war II efforts externally.-Winston Churchill famously rejected Indian appeals mockingly blaming famine victims’ high birthrate comparing them disdainfully “to rabbits.” These racist remarks unveiled outright imperial ideology viewing colonized peoples dispensable servants sacrificing uniquely “for empire interests.”
Food historically has never been neutral within power dynamics.
Colonial empires led notably by Britain perfected transforming diets within subjugated lands turning agriculture from subsistence activities toward machinery fueling empire economies exclusively exporting crops.
Mike Davis’s seminal book “Late Victorian Holocausts” sheds light how famines across India China Africa during nineteenth century weren’t natural disasters but caused purposely owing largely driven economy motives exporting staples abroad wildly indifferent resulting deaths locally-in India massive grain stores located near starving urban poor amplified fatal injustice revealing true nature misunderstanding exposing exploitative organization restructuring colonized livelihoods comprehensively away interests indigenous life support networks undermining sovereignties profoundly.
Anthropologist Sydney Mintz analyzed sugar’s transition from luxury rarity into staple European diet element highlighting what he termed “plantation economy.”
This transformation wasn’t simply taste evolution-it represented major social-economic revolution built upon enslaved Africans forced migration developing intensive tropical sugarcane cultivation covering Americas dramatically entwining Europe Africa Americas economically socially culturally)
brazilian Caribbean plantations operated beyond manufacturing sites becoming laboratories perfecting systematic oppression exploitative structures African knowledge absorbed forcibly further adapting agricultural techniques suited tropical climates so European sweetened tea symbolized vast imperial-wide interconnected relations spanning continents running deep effects reverberated globally shaping worlds political ecological fates fundamentally .
Alfred Crosby pioneered environmental imperialism theory showing European conquest involved far greater biological invasions beyond territorial acquisition involving plant species invasive animals pests all comprehensive initiatives remolding ecosystems destabilizing previous harmony between native crops livestock cultures.paragraph
European grasses Bos taurus cattle radically altered American landscapes displacing native flora fauna changing old survival modes corn became secondary wheat dominant totally replacing local breeds leading devastating ecosystemant shifts suffered severely oppressed subjected populations whose systems replaced fundamentally favor colonizers strengthening inequities economically socially massively geopolitical .
