Engineering hunger... between empty pots and concentration camps!

In Gaza, hunger is no longer merely the result of a prolonged aggression or a harsh blockade. It has transformed into a complex system of systematic management of bodies and wills. The empty pots lining the doors of Gaza's hospices are no longer just a warning bell for a humanitarian plight. They have simultaneously become a global symbol, echoing in the streets of many cities through the banging of pots in solidarity with the hungry, announcing to the world the occupation's transition from a policy of rapid killing to one of slow destruction of the social fabric and of human existence itself.

We are facing a slow mass death project or the "management" of hunger. If we go back to the roots of the phenomenon, we will find that starvation policies have always been part of the history of colonialism, from Britain in India to the United States in Vietnam, all the way to the Nazi experiments with ghettos and concentration camps, where bread rationing and food control were a tool for subjugation and psychological control before physical annihilation. What distinguishes the situation in Gaza today is that this model has been "developed" and implemented with modern tools, through a tight siege, precise surveillance technologies, an international administration that claims to be humanitarian, and institutions bearing the banner of "relief", but which are run with a racist security mentality devoid of any values, which cannot even be compared to concentration camps in form or content.

This starvation is marketed as a passing scene in a “war on terror,” when in fact it is a social genocide aimed at dismantling the social structure, imposing a struggle for survival among members of a single society, and transforming the hungry into competitors for very limited resources, or for crumbs of aid that pass through the guns of the occupying army, under the supervision of complicit institutions. Here, food itself becomes a tool for control and domination, and a driver of new conflicts between individuals and social, political, and even geographical classes. A new geography is produced that maps out hunger, where some receive a few calories while others are deprived even of the smell of bread.

Its dimensions do not stop at human losses, but extend to create a system of oppression that leads to the dismantling of societal bonds, severing the ties of individuals to their communities. It may push some to become hostile to their own communities and the world, and even to a willingness to become a cheap tool in the hands of their enemy. Over time, it may push a person to give up his dignity, his memory, his land, and his dreams in exchange for a meal that may come, but often never does.

The engineering of hunger leads not only to the death of the body, but also to the death of the sense of the value of justice and belonging, and thus to a tool of extermination more deadly than missiles and bombs, forcing a person out of his homeland "voluntarily", after his homeland was forced out of him.

There are equally dangerous transformations taking place, beginning with the international and regional reaction. Silence is no longer the sole ruler, but rather an active identification with the engineering of starvation. Aid only passes through procedures imposed by the occupation, or through institutions that cover up the humanitarian deficit with reports and statistics that bear no relation to reality. The entry of aid does not mean its arrival, but rather its plunder or destruction. On the other hand, the political and economic elites, including Arab elites, stand helpless or watching. Some of them may participate in building the new system that will turn Gaza into a "testing ground" for the future of the Palestinians.

Looking to the future, this system carries a host of catastrophic risks, not limited to Gaza, but to the region and the world. Attempts to break the spirit of a people and humiliate them will breed generations of anger and bitterness, driven by revenge, who will reproduce the experience in more severe forms, impossible to predict or their consequences, neither spatially nor temporally. This opens the door to endless humanitarian, health, and moral crises. This means we need to redraw the paths of the solution through a trilogy: starting with trusted international institutions undertaking the unconditional delivery of aid; activating the tools of international law to hold accountable those who orchestrate starvation operations and kill the starving; and restoring respect for popular initiatives to break the siege and support Palestinian steadfastness, away from the theatrics and maneuvers we witness from time to time.

Empty pots are not only a symbol of suffering, but a new human test. The most important question remains: Will genocide and starvation engineering prevail, or will our people succeed in reversing the hunger equation and transforming it into a narrative of resistance that breaks the logic of modern concentration camps? They ask, "When?" Say, "Maybe it will be soon."