We are all witness to the most depraved crime of the 21st century, as the Israeli blockade of Gaza enters its 65th day. No food, no medications, no fuel, no humanity.

Children and babies are the hardest hit, with mothers struggling to produce milk for their newborns. And this is punctuated with daily attacks by Israeli airstrikes and drones. Attacks which shred, burn and bury flesh, both young and old.

This crime has its parallels in history. It is straight out of the colonial settler playbook. White European settlers employed it in North America by slaughtering millions of buffalo, a staple in the diet of Indigenous peoples. They knew it would lead to starvation. That was the point.

And we saw it when the Nazis starved thousands in concentration camps and in the Warsaw Ghetto. The goal was to work as many people to death. And if that didn’t work, they would be denied food to hasten the process.

Hunger is a horrible way to die. For children, it is perhaps the worst. Many succumb to marasmus, which is an extreme immunodeficiency of vitamins and minerals that usually leads to life threatening infections. Others die of kwashiorkor, which is a severe lack of protein leading to a massive build up in fluids (edema) and an enlarged fatty liver. This is why you see starving children with distended bellies. It is a visual that implies they are well fed when, in actuality, their bodies are shutting down.

Some apologists claim that Hamas is preventing food from reaching civilians. But there is not a shred of evidence to prove this. On the contrary, there is a veritable mountain of evidence that demonstrates that Israel is implementing the blockade as collective punishment. In fact, many Israeli politicians have admitted this openly. And this is a war crime under international law.

So, where is the international community? Where is the West’s vaunted commitment to human rights? The sad answer is that the West is a hollow husk of empty platitudes. It is no longer in possession of a conscience and its own laws and statutes have been rendered meaningless. It is now driven by racism and avarice.

This is what genocide looks like. This is what annihilation looks like. And everyone of us in the West, every single one of us, is complicit in it unless we speak out against this now.

Kenn Orphan, May 2025