Date: 16 October 2024
Time: 5PM Manila | 12PM Amman | Check your time here
Registration link: https://bit.ly/ZeroInPalestine
Organized by Ground Zero of the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty with the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, Arab Network on Food Sovereignty, and ILPS Asia Pacific.
Background
Wars are the primary driver of extreme hunger among populations. In a year’s time, we saw US-Israel’s genocidal war unfold and drive the Palestinian people – especially in Gaza – into famine, as it advanced its occupation of Palestine.
It took the Zionist state three to four months of its all-out war to push the whole 2.2 million population of the Gaza Strip into acute food insecurity, as reported by the 2024 Global Report on Food Crisis. In the West Bank, almost one in every five have become severely food insecure due to Israel’s heightened movement restrictions, settler attacks, raids, and settlement expansion since the genocidal war’s launch.
Israel’s bombs and bullets – largely supplied by the US – have extensively damaged Gaza’s agricultural sector. According to UN FAO and UNOSAT’s assessment as of September 2024, the war razed 68% of croplands (majority of which are orchards and other trees), destroyed 44% of greenhouses, damaged 53% of agricultural wells, and wrecked hundreds of agricultural structures. The water treatment plant and the port of Gaza City were also not spared.
Farmers in West Bank are also suffering with close to 8,000 attacks documented just this year. And as the olive harvest season commences this October, they expect to only harvest about 60% of their olive-growing land – the decrease doubling from last year’s as their access to land is further limited.
However, we must stress that this food crisis is not a recent phenomenon. It has been in existence in the past century of the Zionist occupation, with hunger figures rising to alarming heights since Israel’s imposed blockade in 2007. Israel has been weaponizing starvation, now blatantly displayed in this ongoing genocidal war.
Sooner or later, this situation is likely to be replicated in neighboring countries as Israel expands its genocidal war, marking its first-year anniversary by striking Lebanon. In the past year, this war has been risking the lives of Lebanese and food production of its farmers. Israel’s bombings of white phosphorus in South Lebanon alone have already contaminated their land, water, and soil – making them toxic and flammable.
Nevertheless, the people of Palestine and Lebanon strive to uplift their rural sector amid war conditions. Like olive trees, they are tough to uproot and will overcome. On World Hunger Day, we shall Zero In on Palestine and call to uphold the food sovereignty of its people and the people of other nations attacked by the US-Israel genocidal war!
Speakers
- Lisa Shahin of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, speaking for GAZA
- Abbas Milhem of the Palestine Farmers Union, speaking for WEST BANK
- Ghassan Makarem of the AgriMovement in Lebanon, speaking for LEBANON
They will discuss the current food insecurity and agriculture situation of their areas, their current efforts to support farmers on-ground, their calls, and the ways we can support.
Call for contributions
Zero In: Palestine is also a venue for members and network organizations to express their solidarity, especially as we mark the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood and the October 16 World Hunger Day.
Contributions can be in the form of:
- Photos or videos of their on-ground actions/activities in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, and
- Solidarity messages echoing the call to uphold the Palestinian people’s food sovereignty – not longer than three minutes and preferably shot in landscape (these can also be delivered in local language but kindly provide English translation/subtitles).
Contributions may be sent on or before October 15 to [email protected] or uploaded in this drive. ###
