Debate contribution: Gaza: Action to End Forced Starvation

Debate contribution by Mr Danny Donnelly on 9 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Danny Donnelly

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Gaza: Action to End Forced Starvation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5086524

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The ongoing slaughter in Gaza is the number-one issue that I receive correspondence about by a huge distance. I get letters, phone calls, emails and visits to the office. People are absolutely appalled by what is going on. However, it is not about us, although the whataboutery on the issue is, sadly, predictable. Your opinion on genocide does not impact on your national identity. If I speak out against violence, starvation and genocide and your first thought is to ask whether I condemn Hamas, that exposes your ability to separate atrocities on the basis of who commits them, not mine. In condemning violence, starvation and genocide, Hamas is included unequivocally and without question. When did the condemnation of genocide and the condemnation of terrorism become mutually exclusive? At what point did calling out mass starvation, mass murder and the erasure of an entire group of people mean that you support terrorism? I could try to explain the lack of basic human empathy behind that narrative. I can even talk about the lack of ability to think critically beyond bias that is so deeply engrained that it blinds reason, but that is exactly the point. Those who commit genocide, support genocide or deny genocide while it is unquestionably unfolding in front of the world are not people who listen to reason. Language is a powerful tool. It shapes how we see the world and how we communicate our view of the world to others. When we tell a story, the language that we use moulds how others view our experiences. Language can be manipulated to suit an agenda of hiding true actions and motives behind an exploitative narrative. Whether it is terrorism or state violence constituting a war crime, the words are different but the actions and the outcomes are the same, and the condemnation should be the same. It is about the pain and suffering of innocent people. A BBC report confirms that Israel has replaced the UN's food system with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Instead of 400 community sites, there are now just four, all in heavily militarised zones. Palestinians must walk long distances under fire to reach them. The report states that the Palestinians face a choice "between starvation and death" — the literal definition of a deathtrap. I attended an event last year — other Members who are present were also there — at which Professor Nick Maynard, who is a consultant gastrointestinal surgeon based in the University of Oxford in England has been visiting and working in Gaza since 2010, described having to do surgery on patients, often children, without dependable electricity, light or even analgesia. I cannot imagine the pain that those patients suffer or the impact on the brave medical professionals who risk their lives to do everything that they can to save lives in Gaza. Professor Maynard describes parts of Gaza as "post-apocalyptic", with hospitals being bombed and medics and journalists routinely killed. Professor Maynard and others have been bearing witness and sharing their testimony at the Gaza tribunal in Westminster. In doing so, Professor Maynard highlighted a pattern of:

"clustering of injuries to particular body parts",

and he stated that it was his opinion that there is:

"clear evidence of target practice by the Israeli soldiers on ... young teenage boys."

Every day, we see horrendous pictures on TV and social media of the ongoing atrocities against innocent civilians in Gaza. It has become normalised. Since May, the UN has recorded, at least 994 Palestinians have been killed near those food sites, among the 1,760 killed trying to get aid. Most were shot by Israeli troops, according to eyewitnesses and medics, although Israel denies that. Under that system, starvation in Gaza has only deepened. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization have all highlighted atrocities of starvation in Gaza, and they are clear that the famine must be stopped at all costs. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is the UN's system for measuring hunger, has confirmed that famine is now a reality. That means that the most extreme level has been reached. To reach that point, three things must all be true: extreme food deprivation; acute malnutrition; and deaths caused by starvation. The UN's human rights chief, Volker Türk, said it plainly:

"It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare".

The BBC has reported that the Israeli army body, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), has dismissed the IPC's findings as:

"False and Biased ... Based on Partial Data Originating From the Hamas Terrorist Organization".

Israel's foreign ministry has called it a:

"fabricated report to fit Hamas's fake campaign".

Those claims do not stand up. Even the US Government, Israel's closest ally, have produced internal reports finding no evidence of the systemic diversion of aid by Hamas. Another close ally, the former Foreign Secretary and the current Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, said:

"The Israeli government’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza has caused this man-made catastrophe"

and that it is "a moral outrage."

To recognise those crimes is not to take a side in politics —

— it is to take the side of humanity.

875 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification