Elegy for the dead and dying of occupied Palestine

Elegy is usually used for the dead. In the absence of an equally emotive word to convey the feelings of grief and remorse for those who are dying in plain sight on television screen of viewers, the same nomenclature can do just as fine. Besides, it carries the irony of implying that not only the dying but also those relatively safe now are likely to join the ranks of the dead soon if 'matters' remain the same. The 'matters' here refer to the genocidal intent of the Israeli government, the complicity of United States (US) Administration and handwringing and legal quibbling by European Union (EU) members, including United Kingdom (UK) and the opportunism of Arab countries. After the completion of the grand 'deal- making' trip by President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates on Friday last (May 16), the situation facing Palestinians can be said to be starkly grim: the horror they are going through and the atrocities they are suffering do not count in the ruthless game of power politics and cold calculation of high finance, however grave a humanitarian crisis those may constitute.

If Gaza, mattered, it would have figured prominently in the agenda for discussion between President Trump and his three obliging hosts in the Gulf countries. In the event, what all that the hosts and their VVIP guest did was to make a perfunctory reference to an elusive ceasefire in Gaza as if in a state of conditioned reflex, a la Pavlov's dog. On each of the three days of President Trump's visit, Israeli attacks became more ferocious, killing more than 100 men, women and children as if to drive home the ruthless determination of the Israeli killing machine to carry on its mission of ethnic cleansing through genocide. The killings on the three days of the visit were also an act of defiance of the American president who may have slighted the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu by blindsiding and sidestepping him during the just completed visit. The only reactions to the record number of daily killings in Gaza by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) evoked from the president was, 'bad things are happening in Gaza' and the seemingly pious wish conveyed by the non-actionable statement, 'the people in Gaza deserve better'. No declaration of intent, no reference to resumption of ceasefire, aborted by Israel midway in the first week of March, after it got off the ground in January at the initiative of Trump Administration, only vague observations about 'Gaza will be taken care of' and Quixotic reference to 'freedom zone in Gaza'. The clarity with which Trump Administration's policy towards the new government in Syria was spelled out during president Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia was conspicuous by its absence in the case of a greater humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

President Trump's unqualified support of Israel is well known by all. Israeli prime minister was received warmly at Mar-A-Lago by Donald Trump when he was president-presumptive. This was followed by two visits by Netanyahu to Washington after Donald Trump became president, an event that did not occur in the case of any other leader of the world. During his last visit when President Trump conveyed his vision of developing Gaza as a Mediterranean Riviera, relocating the surviving Gazans to a third country, the words sounded as music to Netanyahu's ears. Like a salivating dog, he rushed to his country and told his generals to complete their mission of making Gaza unliveable by destroying all standing infrastructures and killing as many Palestinians as was possible, culminating in their extinction from the prized real estate now to be shared with President Trump.

Emboldened by President Trump's novel idea of developing Gaza as a real estate project sans Palestinians, Netanyahu not only backed down from the second stage of the American-brokered ceasefire, he also clamped a siege of Gaza, denying entry of trucks carrying food, water and medicine since March 2, 2025. It was obvious to all that the Israeli government had decided to use food as a weapon in its ruthless war, along with immediate deaths through bombings and shelling. The Trump administration remained silent, echoing the Israeli view that this was necessary to 'smoke out' the Hamas 'terrorists'.

After 75 days of siege on Gaza, the surviving Palestinians in the strip are in the first stage of famine, according to UN Agency on Relief and Humanitarian work. The head of UNRAW, the UN agency responsible for delivery of relief goods in Gaza, has categorically said that the intent of the Israeli government is to starve the Gazans to death to ensure the goal of ethnic cleansing. Non-government agencies like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam have come to the same conclusion over the continued siege of Gaza by Israel. On May 12 the UN and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in a report that Gaza's entire population of 2.4 million people is at a risk of a 'food crisis' or worse, with 22 per cent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian 'catastrophe' after more than two months of an aid blockade. 'Nineteen months after the conflict, the Gaza strip is still confronted with a critical risk of famine,' the IPC has said.' Goods indispensable for people's survival are either depleted or are expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people - one in five - facing starvation', it said. The consortium, which has developed a five-level famine warning system, found that from April 1 to May 10, some 244,000 people in Gaza were in the most critical food security situation level five, or 'catastrophe/ famine.' It classified another 9,25,000 as level four 'emergency '. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that Gaza faced 'imminent risk of famine' saying agriculture was 'on the brink of total collapse'.

Famines are not new. These visited countries at various times in history in the wake of long drawn out drought or in the midst of war when supply of food dwindles because of lack of production or disruption is ceased to supply chains. But the famine unfolding in Gaza is unique because it is happening due to a deliberate policy taken by a government to starve a people to death. The ostensible argument given by Israel and supported by America for this diabolic policy of denying food to the hungry is that Hamas stole aid food and this siege is meant to destroy them by denying food. Nothing can be more cynical than this as it ignores the need for food by over two million civilians while highlighting that for a ragtag guerrilla band of not more than ten or fifteen thousands. A policy that has the goal of punishing a tiny fraction of the population by starving the entire population is diabolical to the extreme. It is against all international law, too.

Sensing the backlash at the siege of Gaza creating famine condition, America and Israel has now come up with a proposal to set up a Gaza Humanitarian Aid Foundation, an American private sector outfit to distribute aid food and other items under Israeli security arrangements. But to receive aid food the entire population of Gaza, numbering 2.3 million, has to move to a designated place in the south of the strip. It has not taken long for observers to see the scheme as a trap for Palestinians to be herded in a corner before being deported out of Gaza. Netanyahu is on record saying this and indicating that once countries where the Palestinians can be sent away is found the plan will be executed.

Starvation for days and weeks not only lead muscles to waste away, reducing the hungry to bare bones. It also weakens the will to resist relocation. Israel and its ally, America, know this very well and have deliberately undertaken the policy of slapping a siege on Gaza, denying food to the population. But to their shock and surprise, countries so long sitting on the fence in the conflict, have decided to be on the right side of history. For the first time, United Kingdom (UK) broke ranks with America in the UN Security Council and opposed the idea of distributing food aid through the new fangled Foundation, saying it could not support an aid distribution system that has 'military and political' objectives. Seven members of European Union (EU) also have sided with the Palestinians. Seeing this turn of events America is now saying they are 'disturbed' by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and would like to consider any alternative proposal for distribution of food aid.

The long siege of Gaza with its devastating impact on the Palestinians live streamed on television channels every hour and the recent visit of President Trump to the Gulf countries which lavished him with hospitality and trillions of dollars worth of investment, may be a turning point in the war of attrition inflicted by Israel. There is a faint hope that the backlash of the siege by Israel and the reception enjoyed during his trip to the Gulf countries may cause a change of heart for President Trump. If it happens, and there is a tiny ray of hope for that, then the suffering of the Palestinians can be over. Before winding up his whirlwind trip in the Gulf countries President Trump mentioned about 'Freedom Zone' in Gaza. As of now, no one outside his inner circle knows what did he mean by that cryptic statement. If it means freedom for the Palestinians in a country of their own, then all the deaths and destructions that have taken place in Gaza will not be in vain. This scenario may appear as too good, too fairytale-ish to be true. But there is no harm in being optimistic for a better life for a people who have suffered such indescribable loss and pain for the long period of a year and a half. If the hope turns out to be a will- o- the- wisp, then we will be left with nothing more than an elegy for the dead and dying. It would be a sad commentary on what 'man has made of man,' as the poet lamented.

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