The Flour Massacre and the Airdrop Gimmick

The flour massacre is the dreadful result of the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon combined with its indiscriminate use of violence against the Palestinian population.

The U.S. once again shielded Israel at the U.N. in the wake of yet another atrocity against Palestinian civilians in Gaza:

The US has blocked a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed Israel for the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians who had massed around an aid convoy in Gaza City.

There is no question that the Israeli government is responsible for these deaths. It is beyond shameful that the U.S. would block a statement that says so, but it is consistent with the administration’s indefensible policy of unconditional backing for an atrocious war. The flour massacre, as some are calling it, is the dreadful result of the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon combined with its indiscriminate use of violence against the Palestinian population.

The Israeli government has been the occupying power in Gaza since 1967. As such, it has an obligation to ensure that the needs of the population are being met, and instead it has been depriving them of basic necessities since October. It is Israel’s blockade that has been starving the people of Gaza for almost five months, and it is Israel that has been hampering the delivery of aid. Their policy of collective punishment created the appalling conditions that have pushed people to the brink. It was Israeli forces that then opened fire on the desperate civilians as they tried to get some flour.

This could have been the moment when the Biden administration finally stopped covering for Israel, but of course that isn’t happening. U.S. officials can’t even bring themselves to condemn the killing of these desperate, starving people. Far from holding Israel accountable for this crime, the administration chooses to block others at the U.N. from blaming the government responsible.

Instead of confronting the Israeli government, the Biden administration is now reportedly contemplating using airdrops to deliver a small amount of aid into Gaza. No humanitarian relief agency believes this is the right solution. Airdrops are far too unreliable and inefficient. They cannot deliver aid at sufficient scale to make much of a difference. They are used only as a very last resort in situations where no other options are available. Jeremy Konyndyk of Refugees International told The Independent:

When the US government has to use tactics that it otherwise used to circumvent the Soviets and Berlin and circumvent Isis in Syria and Iraq, that should prompt some really hard questions about the state of US policy.

Gregg Carlstrom summed it up very well:

Airdropping aid to Gaza would be an absurd and embarrassing gimmick from an impotent administration that persistently refuses to enforce its own laws around military aid and utilize its considerable leverage over Israel. Just a profound policy failure.

Scott Paul of Oxfam was appropriately withering in his criticism of the idea:

Oxfam does not support US airdrops to Gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza. While Palestinians in Gaza have been pushed to the absolute brink, dropping a paltry, symbolic amount of aid into Gaza with no plan for its safe distribution would not help and be deeply degrading to Palestinians. Instead of indiscriminate airdrops in Gaza, the US should cut the flow of weapons to Israel that are used in indiscriminate attacks, push for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages, and insist that Israel uphold its duty to provide humanitarian aid, access, and other basic services.

The proposed use of airdrops is a pathetic attempt to make it look as if our government is trying to feed the people that its own policies are helping Israel to starve and kill. Airdrops cannot avert the famine that Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon is creating. There must be a ceasefire and a lifting of the blockade. Anything less than that will fail to prevent the approaching catastrophe.