Israel’s Knesset held a first-of-its-kind discussion on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. During a meeting last Thursday, Dr. Sharon Shaul from NATAN, an Israeli-based organization that provides humanitarian aid around the world, made a seemingly trivial remark: “I think that even everyone sitting around this table doesn’t want a suffering child to be unable to receive painkillers or minimal medical treatment.”
Israeli lawmaker Amit Halevi (Likud) angrily interrupted her: “I’m not sure you’re speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman. I hope you don’t stand behind that statement either. When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don’t exist.”
Shaul didn’t back down: “I hope that you too don’t want a 4-year-old whose arm has been amputated to go without painkillers. I hope you have that empathy too.” Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech (Religious Zionism) couldn’t hold back: “The only treatment needed here is for you,” she said, pointing at Shaul. Another participant remarked: “You are the sickest doctor I’ve ever seen.”…
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Shifra Tzur Aryeh, who identified herself as a resident of the Gaza envelope, scolded the MKs for even holding the discussion. “Who are you pitying?” she shouted, repeating the false claim about the “disembowelment” of pregnant women during the October 7 attack as a reason why Gazans don’t deserve sympathy…
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Arnon Khoury-Yafin, a statistician and economist who built a model to calculate food quantities in Gaza, tried to explain the situation to the MKs… “According to the model, we are already at a point where tens of thousands have no food at all or have less than 300 calories a day. Even if we look at the average, there may not be a caloric deficiency, but there is a deficiency in certain nutrients,” Arnon explained. He, too, was rebuked by MK Halevi, who didn’t need any model or complex calculations to declare: “There is no hungry person in Gaza, not even a single child. It’s a shame you are amplifying that lie – no one is lacking anything.”
In the closed session that followed, the IDF presented data similar to Khoury-Yafin’s…