We’ve been through this. In June, the IPC Famine Review Committee said there is no famine in the Gaza Strip as of yet. The UN subsequently acknowledged the IPC’s latest report. HonestReporting has also done its due diligence to understand what is really happening in Gaza.
But now, UN special “experts” insist there’s “no doubt” that there is one.
With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.
They also despicably cried genocide, even after the ICJ decided that Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza is not considered a genocide.
We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.
It doesn’t matter that one cannot just declare an accusation of this nature in an unofficial capacity. In this case, it’s all just opinion. However, that’s all it took, and the media took it as read. It’s impossible to understand the inference that there must be a famine if bodies like the IPC put out real data reports every few months over whether or not there is evidence of a famine in Gaza.
Related Reading: Media Distort Revised Gaza “Famine” Report
But who cares about logic, right?
According to these “experts,” “When the first child dies from malnutrition & dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold.”
Yet the IPC’s Famine Review Committee concluded that they cannot consider the situation in Gaza a “famine.”https://t.co/gGXldI0NTe
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
Journalists understand very well how the public consumes information, and they know how it views bodies like the UN – they take their word as an official authority. Yet, they continue to publish articles, irresponsibly portraying the statement of these UN “experts” as if it is an official UN one.
Just who are some of the “UN experts” quoted by international media claiming famine has spread throughout Gaza?
They may use the imprimatur of the UN but, in reality, they aren’t the credible, impartial sources you or the media may think. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/a6ZArYRAkK
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
Or this CNN piece, which makes it seem like an official UN statement:
The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip indicates that famine has spread across the entire enclave, according to a United Nations statement, citing independent experts.
These “experts” are part of UN Special Procedures, and they are volunteers, not official UN staff. Therefore, many of these people are public about their own personal opinions, like one UN special rapporteur, antisemite Francesca Albanese.
◾️ Francesca Albanese has previously apologized after antisemitic posts on her personal social media profile were uncovered and has likened the Jewish state to Nazism.
More on Albanese’s deeply compromised background from @UNWatch‘s @HillelNeuer. ⬇️https://t.co/XEa5xr6BFm
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
One of Albanese’s most recent offenses was being caught lying about Gaza casualty figures via her X account (formerly Twitter) by making false claims about the contents of a letter in The Lancet, which made a careless estimation that 186,000 deaths could be “attributed” to the Gaza toll — even though this hasn’t happened or been proven by any body.
Whatever path of life we come from: renouncing an inch of our privilege to expose injustice is what makes us human. https://t.co/hZCQtCnXQb
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 10, 2024
Another “expert,” Michael Fakhri, has a history of allowing his bias to cloud his judgment.
◾️ Michael Fakhri. As @SimonPlosker noted in 2021 in @Jerusalem_Post, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food spent his time promoting the boycott campaign against Israel while ignoring human rights abuser states that let their people starve. https://t.co/oZXwA0r8dv
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2024
Some of the UN special rapporteurs signed off at the bottom of the letter seem to even have little relevance outside their volunteer work at the UN. Nonetheless, when one sees “UN experts” in the headline, they don’t realize that these people don’t represent the UN in an official capacity.
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The public doesn’t know that some, like Albanese and Fakhri, have an anti-Israel agenda. The biggest question then remains: when will the media take caution before spreading the propaganda of agenda-driven “UN experts?”
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