Sir, – As the world watches the starvation of people in Gaza with a mixture of outrage and apathy, we should choose our words carefully.
“Starving” is not the same as “being starved”. The first is an adjective, the other a transitive verb.
Starvation, as a method of warfare, is prohibited by the Geneva conventions, given the insidious cruelty and indignity associated with it.
Every day of Israel’s occupation of Gaza is an affront to international law but its policy of starvation is an indiscriminate collective punishment, indicative of moral and legal bankruptcy.
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Our words must consistently acknowledge that Gazans aren’t just starving, they are being starved. – Yours, etc,
Dr ANDREW FORDE,
School of Law and Government,
Dublin City University.
