Day 117 roundtable: Famine in Gaza, UNRWA funding slashed

On day 117 of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we spoke with Laila El-Haddad, the author of the books Gaza Mom and The Gaza Kitchen. She co-edited Gaza Unsilenced with Refaat Alareer.

Laila is a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit against Joe Biden, alleging that the president and other senior US officials have failed in their legal duty to prevent, and are complicit in, Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The first hearing in the case was held in federal court in Oakland, California, last week.

She discussed her testimony in court and talked about her family in Gaza.

Jump to Laila El-Haddad’s segment here.

Right now, UNRWA is under a concerted attack by Israel and its backers.

Following accusations by Israel that 12 out of thousands of UNRWA staffers in Gaza were involved in the October 7 resistance offensive, the United States and other Western countries have frozen funding to the agency.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees is the last lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza who rely on the meager rations the agency can provide.

We were joined once again by Chris Gunness, who served as spokesperson for UNRWA for more than a decade.

We talked to Chris about Israel’s years-long campaign to destroy the agency and asked him how he thinks the UN should be responding.

Jump to Chris Gunness’ segment here.

Ali Abunimah gave us an update on the latest fallout from the fraudulent New York Times article alleging mass rapes by Hamas fighters on 7 October.

Jump to Ali Abunimah’s segment here.

Jon Elmer discussed the latest developments with the resistance on the ground in Gaza and across the region.

Jump to Jon Elmer’s segment here.

And I gave a brief news update from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, covering stories by Maureen Murphy on the UNRWA cuts and massacres after the International Court of Justice’s ruling; Khuloud Rabah Sulaiman and Salma Yaseen on water contamination and scarcity in Gaza; and Tamara Nassar on assassinations by an Israeli death squad in a Jenin hospital.

Jump to the news update here.

These are just some of the many topics we cover on The Electronic Intifada livestream. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

With Ali Abunimah, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Asa Winstanley, Jon Elmer and directed by Tamara Nassar.

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Comments

Cuts of UNRWA

Permalink Hans replied on Thu, 02/01/2024 - 07:22

Update

To deny food to the starving, sick, freezing people, many of them asphyxiated, without a roof over their heads, without clean water, sanitation...that is pure fascism.
Who else than the evil is capable of doing this to other people? Especially to the traumatized children.
As long as the UN is not able to immediately stop war these crimes by law, there is sitting just a teethless tiger.
This includes to being able to arrest an entire regime temporarely by an arrest warrant.
The root of the evil is the rotten system of capitalism with its endless wars, hunger, injustice.