Since March 2nd, 2025, the state of Israel has completely blocked all entrance to the Gaza strip. This is the longest amount of time Gaza has gone without aid, leading to a food crisis that most thought couldn’t get any worse. Extreme starvation and dehydration gave Palestinians no other choice than to accept aid from US-Israeli backed food distribution sites. However, Israeli tanks opened fire on thousands of starving civilians gathered at these sites, claiming at least 179 lives, and injuring hundreds—if not thousands—more.
Starvation as a Weapon of War and Genocide
Among other international authorities and entities focused on human rights, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have concluded that the state of Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Among those who recognize the conflict as a genocide, there is little debate over whether the state of Israel’s choice to starve Palestinians is an act of genocide. Riyad Mansour, the ambassador of Palestine to the United Nations, has confirmed that the state of Israel is willing to eliminate Palestinians by any means available to them, including forced displacement, murder by any method, the intentional spread of disease, sexual violence, torture, and the destruction of cemeteries and historical and/or holy places.
It seems starvation is their weapon of choice as of late. After starving Palestinians, the state of Israel opened fire on them at food aid distribution sites. These sites were set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by the US. Former UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said that both the state of Israel and the US “were luring people to their deaths.” These crimes have led experts and first hand witnesses to refer to these food aid distribution sites with damning words such as “mass death traps,” and “human slaughterhouses.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) identifies five stages of food insecurity and nutritional deprivation. It has placed the entire Gaza Strip under the Phase 4 “Emergency” stage. 22% of the Palestinian population is suffering the worst and final stage: Phase 5 “Catastrophe.” This means that Gaza is under a critical risk of entering a famine.
The Effects of Israel’s Enforced Starvation
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 57 children under the age of five have passed away due to starvation. However, the WHO acknowledges that this number is likely to be an underestimate.
It also explains that Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of malnutrition and disease. Malnutrition can lead to disease, and disease can lead to malnutrition. Furthermore, Palestinians have very little access to medical care and clean water. Malnutrition, especially during one’s youth, creates lifelong conditions of “stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and poor health.”
Food, water, and medical supplies sit right outside of Gaza while the Palestinian death toll continues to grow. Meanwhile, footage shows Israelis enjoying a barbecue party next to the Gaza border. They seem to be taunting those who are starving with the scent of cooking.
“Holocaust Inversion” and the “New Jews”
This is not the first time starvation has been deployed as a weapon of war with the intention of genocide. The Center for Strategic and International Studies cites “the Nazi blockade of Leningrad in 1941 [and] Stalin’s subjugation of the Ukrainian people during the Holodomor in 1932” as examples of starvation as an act of war.
The Holocaust largely contributed to the publishing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. The state of Israel has violated the majority of articles included in this document. This has led to the development of the term “Holocaust Inversion.” This refers to Israelis committing the same crimes Nazis did, forcing Palestinians to occupy the role of “the new Jews.”
International Jewish organizations such as The World Jewish Congress and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance vehemently oppose the comparison of Israelis to Nazis. Many believe comparing the genocide in Palestine to the Holocaust is an antisemitic act of trivializing and distorting the Holocaust.
However, most of these organizations, including the two aforementioned, follow Zionist ideology. This means that they believe the State of Israel has a right to self determination, referring to the colonization of Palestine. They also recognize Zionism as an essential aspect of the Jewish identity and religion.
Comparing Nazi Germany to the State of Israel
Yet many believe that what is truly antisemitic is to believe that all Jews and Jewish people must be Zionists. One organization, the Jewish Voice for Peace, denounces Zionism. It recognizes this ideology as a trauma response to the atrocities that took place during the Holocaust. They oppose the racist hierarchical structures of Zionism, recognizing the systemic discrimination and violence inflicted on Jewish people of color by the Israeli government. “Rather than [accepting] the inevitability of occupation and dispossession, [The Jewish Voice for Peace] choose[s] a different path.”
These views are shared by the all too underrepresented group of Anti-Zionist Jews and Jewish people. They often face ostracization from their families and communities. One editor of the Jewish Post, Avi Mayer, claims that Anti-Zionist Jews are “no longer [considered] part of Klal Yisrael.” This term translates to “all of Israel,” but it refers to the Jewish community as a whole. An article written by Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy refers to Anti-Zionist Jews as “un-Jews.”
Denouncing Zionism definitely does not equate to antisemitism. If this were true, how could Jews and Jewish people possibly identify as anti-Zionist? But comparing the Holocaust to the genocide in Palestine can be controversial and disrespectful.
However, many Holocaust scholars believe making comparisons between the Holocaust and the genocide in Palestine—if done respectfully: with proper research and recognition of their differences, and without dismissing or minimizing the Holocaust—can provide a nuanced analysis and a historically aware perspective.
The acts committed by Tutsi rebel group, M23, shed quite a bit of light on this topic. M23 bears eerie similarities to the state of Israel by committing the past actions of their former oppressors, thus continuing the trauma cycles of war and genocide. Just like weaponized starvation, the trauma cycles of war and genocide are nothing new.
