Everyone has been lining up to accuse Israel of causing an intentional, imminent famine for months. While the war has certainly caused hardships for Palestinians, there was never any evidence to support a famine.

Not only that, but the content Gazans have been posting doesn’t support this reality.

youtu.be/J1zGS_24AsY

@ecksmc

"Honest Reporting" is a watchdog with no responsibility to journalistic integrity. It has no motivation to seek opposing POVs. It should be shared with caution, despite the cute name.

Food insecurity varies in intensity in all regional analysis, explaining how an abundance of readily accessible videos of starvation sit alongside food shots & why Israelis have had to push back on local extremists (even Knesset) blocking aid. Life is always more complicated than any watchdog will admit.

@ecksmc

Just sharing this because I know you're very robust when it comes to tackling mis- and disinformation in many fields.

I know this one hits close to home, because you are fighting for Israel's future, but I hope it's still clear that using a source like that one as *the* definitive statement on this situation will undermine the credibility of your assertions.

Watchdogs and advocacy groups are best used in a more comprehensive data assessment environment.

@MLClark actually I don't have a dog in the fight

And I take your point about honest reporting

That said they aren't the only source for the famine being false reporting

report issued quietly earlier this month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification’s Famine Review Committee

counter.social/@ecksmc/1126682

we now know there is no famine in Gaza.

@ecksmc

The report I screencapped in the above images is from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification's Famine Review Committee, released June 25. As they illustrate, different zones have different levels of crisis.

I always prefer to look at the original data, and look at how it's being spun by different sources. The article you linked is "spin" as well. There are children dying of malnutrition. Not 2-4 per 100,000 per day yet, but enough that people want to avoid it getting worse.

@ecksmc

To use another situation as an analogy, if we'd magically done enough to stop climate change, many would be able to use the absence of worsening temperatures as "proof" that there was never any problem to begin with.

All through this war, calling attention to humanitarian aid has put pressure on all parties to do more about it.

So if we can look back and say "see? no *technical* famine was ever reached!" -- great! That's not a mark against raising the concern; it's a win condition.

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@MLClark there is a difference between raising concern for something and outright manipulation

And manipulation is what the media are going for by using "famine" when there is no actual famine - areas are getting aid and Hama's mostly are in control of that aid and charging people for it that's what media should focus on more - instead of misleading people into believing little aid is getting through and a famine is happening

@ecksmc

Food aid is fascinatingly manipulated in war.

For months, the world community has been calling for the region to be "flooded with aid", precisely to avoid those hoarding scenarios that happen when only a little is coming through (and sometimes dumped in strategically remote areas).

So yes! Hamas hoards. And also, Biden and other leaders have long been at loggerheads with Netanyahu for his gov't's failure to protect aid (Smotrich plays a huge role there) or to allow others to do more.

@ecksmc

This is where the "spin" can blow things out of proportion. Legacy media articles predominantly talk about the *risk* of famine and the hunger crisis.

This Wed, there was an overt famine call in CNN, and in May Cindy McCain of the World Food Programme said that there was a "full-blown famine" in parts of Gaza. But most reporting has hedged.

And to dismiss the existence of dead children from malnutrition, including premies and miscarriages, is just as much "spin" as those statements.

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