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Press Release

(Bagnolet: March 14, 2024) The Confédération Paysanne expresses its dismay at the use of starvation as a tool of genocide against the Palestinian people. For months, officials of the Israeli state have explicitly advocated the use of food as a weapon of war in Gaza. This deliberate strategy has led to the catastrophic situation in which the entire population of Gaza finds itself today: people have no choice but to consume animal feed, infants are dying of hunger and dehydration, and 100% of the population faces severe food insecurity.

This is not merely a “humanitarian crisis,” as too many French media outlets imply. It is genocide and crimes against humanity. Who could deny the intentionality behind starving the Palestinian people? The fields of Gaza’s farmers have been ravaged, agricultural facilities destroyed, and fishermen barred from accessing the sea. Thousands of humanitarian aid trucks wait at the border in Rafah, just a few kilometers from where Gazans are starving, and food aid rots on the Egyptian side because the Israeli state only permits a few dozen trucks to pass each day, when over five hundred are needed. Furthermore, the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed locations where food aid distributions were taking place.

Moreover, the atrocities committed against farmers in the West Bank also reveal a strategy to destroy Palestinian food sovereignty. Settlers seize Palestinian farmers’ lands, appropriate or destroy their crops, confiscate or destroy access to water, with the support of the Israeli armed forces. Yet, in Palestine as elsewhere, food sovereignty is a right and an essential element of people’s self-determination.

As a farmers’ organization, this deliberate strategy of using agricultural destruction and starvation to exterminate a people disgusts us. The right to food and the rights of farmers, recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), are fundamental human rights. We commend the indispensable work carried out, particularly by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in tirelessly denouncing these egregious human rights violations. We bitterly regret that these repeated alerts from the UN have gone unheeded for months.

The French state bears a heavy responsibility for failing to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people. Despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling on January 26, the French government continues to treat the Israeli state as an ally; if it were confirmed that France is still selling arms to Israel, it could amount to complicity in genocide under international law. It is high time that our leaders take seriously their collective and individual responsibility in supporting such grave crimes.

Therefore, the Confédération Paysanne calls on the French government to:

Work towards a permanent and unconditional ceasefire.
Cease all arms deliveries to Israel.
Increase financial aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and significantly enhance humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
Unambiguously recognize the rights of Palestinians to a state and support the full recognition of Palestine as a full-fledged member state of the UN.
Immediately terminate the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Support South Africa in its complaint lodged with the International Court of Justice and at the very least strictly adhere to the decisions of the ICJ.
Urgent action is needed for life and peace.

[1] UN Special Rapporteurs’ press release: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/un-experts-condemn-flour-massacre-urge-israel-end-campaign-starvation-gaza