28 No. 76 JUSTICE pattern. This figure was found to be wildly false, and in May 2024 OCHA quietly dropped it.23 Still, the figure remained in Albanese’s final draft.24 She cited the figure in public lectures thereafter.25 “Anatomy” further claimed that Israel deployed “deliberate starvation” in Gaza, “especially among children.” How one targets children for starvation in war zones is unclear, but the larger point is that Albanese willfully ignored numerous developments. The World Food Programme, the largest organization fighting global hunger, was active in Gaza from the start. In February 2024, its chief executive officer, Carl Skau, reported to the UN Security Council that while more food trucks crossing into Gaza were desirable, the main problem was the safety of convoys moving from the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in southern Gaza to Gaza City in the north through combat zones and a breakdown of civil order.26 Skau would not say so openly, but the Israelis had begun escorting convoys while coordinating routes.27 In May, the Israelis responded to other WFP requests. They opened two truck crossings in northern Gaza where none had existed before, and they began to allow humanitarian deliveries to the Ashdod port, sixteen miles from Gaza.28 Readers of Albanese’s “Anatomy” report would not have known that the World Food Programme existed. Nor did Albanese mention that between March and July 2024, more than 23,000 trucks entered Gaza carrying nearly 400,000 tons of food, medical supplies, shelter equipment, and so on.29 Instead Albanese cited Michael Fakri, the UN special rapporteur for the right to food and a fellow UN expert charging genocide. In March 2024, Fakri claimed in the anti-Zionist platform Mondoweiss that “It’s hard to determine … how many people are actually dying from malnutrition and disease and hunger versus bombs and bullets,” and that “we’ve never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so completely and so quickly. Never in modern history.”30 Fakri’s ignorance of modern history aside, it was not hard to distinguish war fatalities from those related to malnutrition. Albanese reported, based on figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, that Gaza had suffered more than 30,000 fatalities. These figures were in themselves problematic, as they did not distinguish combatants. But even according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 27 children died of malnutrition related illnesses by March 21, 2024, a figure Albanese did not include.31 The number is tragic, but it does not support Fakri’s assessment. Albanese’s press conference on March 27, 2024, demonstrated her antisemitism.32 Back in 2014, she railed about dominant Jewish lobbies controlling the U.S. government. Now she said that she had received threats from what one reporter called “certain people.” When 23. OCHA, “Reported impact snapshot, Gaza Strip” (May 31, 2024), available at https://www.ochaopt.org/content/ reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-31-may-2024; Elliot Abrams, “UN Halves its Estimate of Women and Children Killed in Gaza,” CFR (May 12, 2024), available at https:// www.cfr.org/blog/un-halves-its-estimate-women-andchildren-killed-gaza 24. Supra note 22, at ¶ 25. 25. Supra note 21, at 21:49. 26. Sec. Res. S/PV. 9560 at 5-6, 9560th Meeting (Feb. 27, 2024). 27. “Fergal Keane: Aid Convoy Tragedy Shows Fear of Starvation Haunts Gaza,” BBC (March 2, 2024), available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middleeast-68456718; Louis Imbert, et al., “Á Gaza, une distribution alimentaire vire à la tragédie: ce que l’on sait sur le convoi humanitaire et les tirs de l’armée israélienne,” LE MONDE (March 1, 2024), available at https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2024/03/01/ guerre-israel-hamas-a-gaza-une-emeute-de-la-faim-etdes-tirs-israeliens_6219440_3210.html 28. Michael Bachner et al., “Israel Opens Erez Crossing to Gaza Aid for First Time as Blinken Tours Border,” TIMES OF ISRAEL (May 1, 2024), available at https://www. timesofisrael.com/israel-opens-erez-crossing-to- gaza-aid-for-first-time-as-blinken-tours-border/; Seth Frantzman, “Israel Opens Another Crossing for Aid to Enter Northern Gaza,” FDD (May 13, 2024) available at https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/05/13/israelopens-another-crossing-for-aid-to-enter-northern-gaza/ 29. Calculations provided by COGAT are available at https:// govextra.gov.il/cogat/humanitarian-efforts/main/ 30. Supra note 22, at ¶¶ 22, 40, 41; David Katterburg, “UN Expert: Israel is Engineering Famine in Gaza,” MONDOWEISS (March 11, 2024), available at https:// mondoweiss.net/2024/03/un-expert-israel-is-engineeringfamine-in-gaza/ 31. Press Release, “Gaza: Halt the War Now to Save Children from Dying of Imminent Famine, UN Committee Warns,” OHCHR (March 21, 2024), available at https://www. ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/gaza-halt-war-nowsave-children-dying-imminent-famine-un-committeewarns 32. UN Human Rights Council, “Q&A with Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” YOUTUBE (March 27, 2024), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8512p-80wI
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