UN study debunks Gaza malnutrition claim, but Labour presses on

All of a sudden, Jerusalem was starving the Palestinians. Except, this has now been debunked by another report, produced by the UN-backed Nutrition Cluster.

It shows that not only was Gaza’s upper-arm-measured acute malnutrition at the same rate, or lower, than before October 7, but that the Palestinians record lower levels of malnutrition than neighbouring countries including Egypt and Jordan.

As the researcher Dr Mark Zlochin observes in the JC, the data show that Gazan malnutrition is “exceptionally low by both regional and even Western standards”.

The peddlers of the famine fabrication are suddenly very muted, though no doubt their repertoire of excuses would include an insistence that the IPC report was just one data point among many.

But this was no technical finding. It was a lynchpin in the genocide calumny, and was seized upon by the usual suspects in the anti-Israel lobby.

The Foreign Office joined a multi-national statement endorsing the IPC analysis, saying it “clearly and unequivocally confirms famine in the Gaza governorate” and adding: “We trust the IPC’s work and methodology.”

The following month, then foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told the UN General Assembly there was a “man-made famine” and “children dying of starvation” in the Hamas-run strip, which she blamed on the Israeli government for “choos[ing] to escalate war and hold back aid”.

Amnesty International called the declaration “a devastating confirmation” of Israel’s “ongoing genocide”, and asserted that “Israel’s deliberate campaign of starvation” was “an entirely man-made, deliberately orchestrated and preventable catastrophe”.

Oxfam said the report confirmed “what our staff and partners have been witnessing for months: people in the Gaza Strip being deliberately starved, relentlessly bombarded, and forcibly displaced – all part of Israel’s genocide”.

Will they all now apologise – or at the very least retract? Honestly, who cares? Yes, truth matters, but correcting the record will not undo the harm caused by such an incendiary charge. The warped perceptions, the hatred kindled, the animosity towards anyone or anything to which the label “Zionist” can be attached.

British Jews are scared; they’re right to be. Since October 7 they have seen murderous violence against their persons, vandalism against their synagogues, and arson against their property. Jewish-owned ambulances have been fire-bombed. Ambulances. It’s not enough that Jews be stabbed and bloodied and cowed into hiding their religious symbols; they must be deprived of the means to save themselves.

Most British Jews are Zionists, albeit the intensity of the attachment to Israel differs from person to person, as do the feelings stirred up. Some are happy warriors for Zionism; others are concerned by the impact of Jewish sovereignty on Jewish ethics; others still are the dissenting critics who imagine themselves to be the voice of Jewish conscience.

Zionism, like Judaism, encompasses the complexities of the Jewish experience: “Bless the sting and bless the honey/Bless the bitter and the sweet.”

Instead of acting to calm tensions, this government prefers to inflame them. If the political chatter is true, we can expect yet more inflaming in the coming months as Andy Burnham attempts to reset his party’s relationship with Muslim voters. Ministers will slug away at the Israel punching bag in the vain hope that it will sate the electors who have abandoned them.

New foreign secretary Ed Miliband used his “frank and constructive” first conversation with Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar to lash out at Israel on settlements, Palestinian statehood, and, inevitably, the transfer of aid to Gaza. The anti-Israel lobby is itching to get its NGOs back into Gaza where they can return to business-as-usual, turning a blind eye to Hamas’s crimes, and denouncing Israel at every opportunity.

There is no silver lining in this for Jews. Labour increasingly sees British politics in terms of interest blocs, whether those interests be economic, political, or ethnic, and the harsh truth is that Jews are a much smaller bloc. It is worth noting, in passing, how insulting it is to treat all British Muslims as an unintegrated, ethno-religious bloc. Make no mistake, those Muslims exist, and in far greater numbers than we should be comfortable with, but plenty of British Muslims want to be addressed as the individuals they are.

Regardless, the voters who ditched Labour over Gaza are, by and large, not coming back. They want representatives who share and are willing to give voice to their extremist, antizionist prejudices. The 2024 election has shown them that Labour can be beaten in its heartlands by populist Muslim, Palestine-centric, sectarian campaigns.

While Labour MPs have grown accustomed to pandering to this electorate over the years, they could never go far enough. Now these voters don’t need Labour, and where they have the numbers they will put one of their own in Parliament.

Labour isn’t prepared to accept this yet, so expect the anti-Israel politicking to be stepped up again and again. Even though it won’t redraw the electoral map in Labour’s favour, it will contribute to the noxious fug of antisemitism that lingers in Britain’s major cities, university towns, and in progressive spaces like education, trade unionism, the public sector, and the arts.

It would be better all round if Labour just admitted what it was up to, that it doesn’t care whether the data it bases policy decisions on are reliable, that certain Muslim votes matter more than the Jewish community. Lessons should be learnt, but won’t, about the credence given to UN statistics on Israel. When you want to be misled enough, and to mislead others, you will believe anything.

Stephen Daisley is a columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail and a regular contributor to The Spectator