Irene Idris/H. Klement – August 4, 2025 – Updated August 7, 2025
This is how a recent statement begins from Dr. Fernanda Méndez Baggi, President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – Latin America:
“Gaza has become a hell for the Palestinian people. Their survival depends on the Israeli authorities, who deny them access to food, water, medical care, and shelter. There is a shortage of everything—except death and violence,” she told El Tiempo.[1]
Famine Deliberately Engineered by Zionism
On top of the extremely desperate, catastrophic, and chaotic situation in Gaza—marked by total territorial devastation, ongoing mass killings, bombings, and continuous displacement—the Netanyahu government has intensified a deliberately engineered famine, using starvation as one of many methods to condemn the surviving population of Gaza to death.
To achieve this, the Israeli government took military control over food aid and blocked the entry of more than 6,000 trucks filled with food, which remain stranded outside Gaza, while the population suffers and dies of hunger.
As famine expert Alex de Waal stated in an interview with the BBC:
“Since World War II, there has been no case of famine as meticulously designed and controlled as the one in Gaza.”[2]
Likewise, several media outlets have underscored this tragic situation in headlines and articles:
“Our children are waiting their turn to die’: The extreme hunger crisis suffocating Gaza and threatening to become the greatest humanitarian disaster of the century.” [3]
“It is very difficult to find food in the market, and when we do find it, we have no money to buy it. It’s very expensive,” a resident of Gaza told EFE. In fact, the blockade has caused food prices to rise by as much as 3,000%. [4]
In an interview with El País (Spain), three European doctors—two British and one Spanish—reported that the few remaining medical staff in Gaza:
“work while starving, lacking essential materials, and under the constant sound of bombings”… “One of my fellow surgeons told me he needed an intravenous catheter in his own arm while operating because he hadn’t eaten in two days,” said Jeelani.
“For Groom, one of the most illustrative cases of the crisis is that of anesthesiologist Nissa Abu Dhaka. ‘In the past two weeks, I’ve asked him, “Do you have anything to eat?” He has six children. For three or four days a week, they eat nothing. He tells me they lick salt at night and drink water to fill their stomachs so they can sleep without feeling hungry,’ the British doctor reported.” [5]
The following charts are illustrative:
This grim reality was denounced nearly a year ago in an article by Irene Idris:
“The survivors of this immense humanitarian catastrophe are on the verge of dying from starvation or from infections that are spreading rapidly due to the absence of even the most basic healthcare and sanitation systems, which prevents any proper hygiene… Gaza has been turned into a massive extermination camp! Gaza is no longer a ghetto, as it was before the Israeli occupying army launched its current military offensive. The Israeli entity has turned it into a mass extermination camp. It replaced Hitler’s crematoriums with bombings and the mass killing of a defenseless population… Israel’s goal is to wipe out Palestinian life and every manifestation of its existence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in order to consolidate its total occupation of historic Palestine.”(Full article available here: “Gaza: After a year of genocide, the destruction is total!”) [6]
The Zionist Barbarity: The Holocaust of the 21st Century
Today, Gaza reveals that Nazi barbarism has resurfaced in the form of Israeli Zionism. It employs methods of extermination strikingly similar to those used by Hitler against Jews, Roma, democrats, liberals, and the left.
How else can we define a genocide that has taken the lives of over 60,000 Palestinians, left around 20,000 missing, and injured 100,000? What words describe the murder, injury, or mutilation of more than 16,500 babies and children, the starvation of more than 20,000 others, or the forced displacement of millions?
What can be said of the total devastation of Gaza’s infrastructure, now reduced to rubble? Or the meticulously engineered famine designed to bring about a slow death due to lack of food, water, electricity, shelter, clothing, medicine, and medical care? What about the complete destruction of the entire hospital network and the murder of health personnel?
How do we describe the implementation of so-called “death traps,” as Palestinians have termed the food distribution points deliberately planned by Israel—zones where Israeli forces bomb and shoot at those desperately seeking a handful of flour?
The similarity to the atrocities committed by Hitler against the Jews is evident in both the methods and the ideology that underpins them—based on racist supremacy and the alleged dominance of a “superior” race. Just as Hitler dehumanized Jews by branding them “parasites,” Zionism treats Palestinians as animals, seeking to strip them of their dignity.
As three European doctors summarized after leaving Gaza: “Animals have more rights in the UK than Palestinians have in their own land.”
This apocalyptic situation has been addressed by two Israeli NGOs who, defying censorship, have denounced the genocide. The executive director of B’Tselem has clearly and forcefully stated the nature of the crimes Israel is committing:
“…the surreal has become routine. Cities reduced to ashes. Entire neighborhoods obliterated. Families forced to flee again and again. Tens of thousands dead, massive famine inflicted, aid trucks rejected or bombed. Parents feeding their children animal fodder, children dying while waiting for flour to arrive. People shot, unarmed civilians gunned down for approaching food caravans.” [7]
Images of mutilated adults, women, and children are now joined by those of starving infants—skin clinging to bone, reduced to skeletons. We are witnessing the horrifying and macabre scene of a new Holocaust in the 21st century, perpetrated with the complicity of the global ruling elites.
How can one describe the fact that, with few honorable exceptions, the ethnic cleansing is carried out with the unconditional support of all imperialist powers and the majority of presidents, ministers, and bourgeois elites of nearly all capitalist states? How can we characterize the reality that, at most, some governments merely issue statements—fully aware that they will have no real impact?
What can be said of the fact that, in addition to the political, economic, and military support provided by the United States to Israel, Trump—together with the Zionist entity—established a food distribution company that became a deadly trap for Gazans?
European elites continue to support the genocide, disregarding all UN resolutions—the very international body to which they belong—while taking no concrete measures to stop the mass death. How, then, can one justify the blatant double standard in the application of international law between Gaza and Ukraine?
And what should we make of the policies implemented in the occupied West Bank, with constant demolitions of homes and schools, along with the deliberate destruction of essential infrastructure, including roads, water systems, electricity, and communication networks—all designed to forcibly expel Palestinians from their land? Or of the torture inflicted on Palestinian prisoners with chemical agents, the setting of prisoners on fire, or the sexual abuse at the hands of Israeli military and prison personnel in the Zionist state’s prisons and barracks—as well as imprisonment without charges? (See also: “The Endless Occupation of Palestine.”)
Thus, the Palestinian Holocaust being carried out by Israel in Gaza seeks to complete the fabrication of a “land without a people”—an ideology that has underpinned Zionist colonization and occupation of Palestine for more than 80 years. This Holocaust, akin to that suffered by Jews at the hands of Hitler, reflects the profound decay and moral collapse of the current social system, from which the Nazi-Zionist Israeli entity has emerged.
What is even more disturbing is that these methods of ethnic elimination and notions of racial superiority—promoted by all Israeli governments and now by Netanyahu’s administration—are broadly shared and defended by the vast majority of Israeli society. As the Jewish People Policy Institute reported in a survey, 82% of Jewish Israelis supported the “relocation” of Gazans, and only 3% considered it immoral.[9]
This is further confirmed by the director of the Israeli NGO B’Tselem:
“Genocide does not happen without massive participation: a population that supports it, allows it, or looks the other way. That is part of its tragedy. Almost no nation that has committed genocide understood what it was doing at the time. The justification is always the same: self-defense, inevitability, the victims brought it upon themselves.” [10]
This is the social base that—despite minor differences—has supported the various governments of Israel since the founding of that occupying and colonizing entity, including, of course, the current ultra-extremist administration led by Netanyahu. It is strikingly similar to the fanatical support Hitler and the Nazis received from the majority of the German and European population at the time.
Fractures Within Zionist Society
There are significant signs of internal crisis within Zionism—ranging from the protest actions of young people and minority groups who oppose the genocide and refuse to enlist in the army, to the public statements of two Israeli NGOs that have broken their silence and clearly spoken out against the genocide. On July 28, these organizations stated that, based on their investigations, their government and military are committing genocide:
“Nothing prepares you for realizing that you are part of a society that is committing genocide. This is a deeply painful moment for us,” said Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem, in a statement released alongside a press conference in Jerusalem.“Reality leaves us no choice but to acknowledge the truth: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” Novak declared.[11]
Mobilizations Stir Friction Within the World’s Elites
Netanyahu will not give up the use of famine as a weapon of war to finally subdue the Palestinian people, because—as famine expert Alex de Waal has also stated—“Those who inflict famine know that what they are actually doing is dismantling a society”[8]; and that is the Zionist goal.
For their part, the Trump administration and European governments are not going to force Netanyahu and his cabinet to stop. If they truly intended to do so, they would not have allowed the extermination we are currently witnessing. As de Waal also pointed out:
“The international community has the resources, the skills, the networks, and the plans to push through a massive influx of essential aid tomorrow. All that is needed is for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give the order, and all the children in Gaza could be eating breakfast tomorrow.”
So far, beyond empty words, none of the European elites have severed commercial or diplomatic ties with Israel, nor have they blocked arms shipments.
However, the internal contradictions emerging among the global elites—and within Zionism itself—are becoming significant. The recent proposal by the European Commission to exclude Israel from the Horizon Europe fund for violating the Association Agreement on “Human Rights,” along with statements from several European political leaders and other developments, reflect a response to the persistent and growing social pressure from thousands of people who take to the streets in their countries, who stand firm with Gaza, and who continue to raise the banner of solidarity. With these declarations, some political figures seek to reposition themselves and soothe public outrage, attempting to distance themselves—at least partially—from Zionist atrocities.
But they will not succeed in calming the waters of resistance. On the contrary, the protests within Israel, along with the statements from the two Israeli NGOs denouncing the genocide, are clear signs that solidarity with Gaza—and the persistence of global denunciations of ethnic cleansing and massive support for the Palestinian cause—is steadily eroding support among segments of Israeli and European society for Netanyahu’s government, Zionism, and the occupation army.
The Two-State Policy Effectively Recognizes the Zionist Entity
On the other hand, it is a positive development that the governments of countries such as Colombia, South Africa, and Bolivia, among others, have decided to sever diplomatic relations with Israel. In particular, Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the Navy to stop coal shipments departing from Colombian ports bound for Israel. While these actions may be insufficient, they are steps in the direction of a correct political stance.
Nevertheless, the majority of governments—both «left» and «right»—still resist breaking diplomatic ties and merely attempt to mitigate or “moderate” Zionist aggression in Gaza, even as the Holocaust intensifies.
Moreover, none of these governments challenge the existence of this “racist, genocidal, and colonial” state, which has been eliminating Palestinians since before its official founding in 1948. To this day, although some distance themselves from Netanyahu, most continue to express support for the “two-state solution,” which in practice legitimizes the occupier.
While it is important to acknowledge the significant differences between those who denounce the genocide and those who support or justify it, the fact remains that all of them—even if some try to hide it—support the existence of the State of Israel and endorse its so-called “right to exist.” This includes, of course, the Zionist Nazis led today by Netanyahu, along with his far-right allies in various countries (Trump, Orban, Meloni, Milei, Novoa, Bukele, Boluarte, the Uribistas in Colombia, etc.), but also those who rightly denounce the genocide yet claim to be “democrats and progressives” (Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, the United Kingdom, etc.), as well as those who present themselves as centrist moderates (France, Canada, Australia, etc.).
Eighty Years After the Defeat of Nazism: “Never Again” Rings Hollow
Eight decades after the defeat of Nazism—achieved primarily by the working class of the then bureaucratized workers’ state of the Soviet Union, which, armed and wearing the uniform of the Red Army, secured that immense and undeniable democratic victory by defeating German forces at the Battle of Stalingrad (1943), marking the beginning of Nazism’s collapse, and ultimately through the Battle of Berlin that led to the final downfall of the Nazi regime—the promise of “never again” made by capitalist governments is exposed as an empty phrase. (See also: “Eighty Years After the Defeat of German Nazism: We Witness the Genocide of the Palestinian People”)
At that time, it was forcefully proclaimed that “never again” would the atrocities of the Holocaust or the rise of Nazi regimes be permitted. Today, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza reveals that such words bore—and continue to bear—the hypocritical seal of the ruling classes. The slogan “never again,” much like the defense of “human rights,” “international humanitarian law,” and “national sovereignty,” were imposed by the revolutionary advances of the time and, following the retreat of those struggles, were reduced to words on paper. Valid only when serving the interests of the powerful, they are used opportunistically by capitalists. Empty words that do not apply when genocide and methods of racial extermination are used to crush the rebellion of oppressed peoples and the working class.
Only the decisive victory of the democratic struggle against the genocidal state of Israel—and the triumph of workers’ revolution—will make “never again” a reality for those below, just as the overwhelming victory over Nazism once did. That monumental achievement gave rise to global struggles that secured significant social and labor rights for the working class and the masses, and it paved the way for the successful decolonization movements of oppressed peoples across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Imperialist Capitalism Is the Root of All Evil
The methods used to exterminate entire communities or entire peoples are inherent features of this decaying economic and social system, as demonstrated by the expansion of capitalism through the colonization of nations. Though differing in form, these methods resemble the genocide inflicted upon Indigenous populations by Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British colonizers across the Americas, Africa, and other regions—practices that were later taken up and surpassed by Hitler in his extermination of Jews and other victims. Today, they are being replicated by Israeli Zionism.
As we have pointed out in previous articles, this tragedy is not an anomaly of capitalism, but rather a clear manifestation of its decline.
That is why the signs of internal crisis within the metropolitan countries and within Zionism itself are so important—especially the mobilization of youth and minority groups who have raised their voices against these atrocities and refuse to enlist in the army. Equally significant is the public declaration by the two Israeli NGOs that broke their silence and spoke out clearly against the genocide. On July 28, these organizations stated that, following their investigations, they had concluded that their government and military are indeed committing genocide.
No More Speeches and Words: Concrete Actions of Mobilization and Solidarity![12]
For months, this publication has been calling for concrete actions of mobilization and solidarity with the Palestinian cause, while denouncing the horror endured by the population in Gaza. Recently, in an article by Norma Reyes dated June 16, 2025, this call was reiterated:
The dramatic situation demands much more than statements. It calls for organization, resolve, and struggle. The leadership of trade unions, grassroots movements, and democratic organizations in Colombia, Latin America, and around the world have a historic responsibility to convene and organize the broadest possible mobilization in solidarity with the Palestinian people—to stop the genocide and halt the advance of Zionism in Gaza and the West Bank.
This is why, in the face of this premeditated genocide, it is urgent to defend the Palestinian people without hesitation—while also pointing out, where necessary, the errors of their political leadership—and to defend their right to establish a secular, democratic, and non-racist Palestinian nation.
It is therefore imperative that the working class—the exploited and the oppressed—take up the Palestinian cause as their own and join the growing protest movements against Zionism and its allies, which are once again unfolding in cities across Europe and the United States. [14]
In turn, the aforementioned article by Irene Idris emphasized:
The invaluable support of hundreds of thousands of people who have been marching around the world—consistently and massively—demanding an end to the genocide and the recognition of the Palestinians’ right to live in their land, usurped by Israeli settlers, alongside the recent protests by students from major U.S. universities, while vitally important and a source of encouragement for the Palestinian people, have so far proven insufficient to compel Israel, the United States, and other imperialist and capitalist governments to withdraw their military, political, and economic support.
To stop Israel’s military offensive, these mobilizations must be deepened and accompanied by international actions led by workers’ unions and political organizations—using their traditional methods of struggle, such as strikes against governments and boycotts of the production or shipment of weapons to Israel. These are measures that strike at the interests of those who profit from the genocidal war in Palestine.
This requires that the leadership of the labor movement and the masses move beyond mere statements or symbolic gestures of solidarity. They must genuinely engage their base in direct actions of solidarity and rejection of Zionist aggression, in support of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
The agonizing reality of the Palestinian people demands that leaders of democratic organizations—especially those who claim to be progressive, and above all the major labor organizations such as trade union federations—stop “looking upward” or trying to align themselves with those in power, passively waiting for governments, the UN, or traditional politicians to tell them what to do.
Mobilizations and actions are urgently needed to demand that the governments who have severed relations with Israel go further—by forming a coalition of countries that break ties with Israel and work effectively toward its international isolation. Crucially, union leaders must engage with their grassroots members, organizing broad, united, and democratic forums where the truth about Gaza can be shared, the genocide denounced, and workers drawn into a coordinated plan of protest actions, boycott efforts, and mass mobilizations in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters—pressuring governments to take action that will stop the genocide.
Such a plan of action must follow the path already laid out by the ongoing, tireless mass protests taking place across cities in Australia, the United States, Europe, and several Arab countries.
The fight to stop the genocide—and to support the Palestinian cause for national liberation—is, ultimately, a fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples. It is a struggle from which the working class and the popular sectors have been largely absent, due to the policies of the leadership of the dominant labor and mass organizations.
The leaders of the working class have a moral duty to organize these acts of protest and solidarity.!
The responsibility is in their hands.!
For a secular, democratic, and non-racist Palestine!
[1] https://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/medio-oriente/la-guerra-en-la-franja-de-gaza-se-convierte-en-uno-de-los-desastres-humanos-mas-graves-del-siglo-xxi-3475604
[2] “Since World War II, there has not been a single case of famine so meticulously designed and controlled as the one in Gaza,” said famine expert Alex de Waal. (BBC News Mundo, July 31, 2025)
[3] Stephany Echavarría. International News Editor. El Tiempo. July 26, 2025.
[4] Ídem.
[5] Luis Carlos Pinzón -Madrid. El País. 31 Julio2025
[6] https://opcionmarxistainternacional.com/gaza-tras-un-ano-de-genocidio-la-destruccion-es-total-y-el-sionismo-bombardea-medio-oriente/
[7] We Israelis grew up asking ourselves how it could have happened—and now our country is committing genocide in Gaza.
elDiario.es, in collaboration with The Guardian, July 31, 2025.
[8] Idem. BBC News Mundo. 31 de julio 2025
[9] https://elpais.com/internacional/2025-05-25/netanyahu-impulsa-en-gaza-la-agenda-mas-radical-de-la-extrema-derecha-israeli.html
[10] Idem.
[11] Israeli NGOs: “Israel is committing genocide” in Gaza.DW, July 28, 2025.
[12] https://opcionmarxistainternacional.com/urge-fortalecer-la-movilizacion-y-la-lucha-para-detener-al-sionismo/
[13] https://opcionmarxistainternacional.com/urge-fortalecer-la-movilizacion-y-la-lucha-para-detener-al-sionismo/
[14] https://opcionmarxistainternacional.com/urge-fortalecer-la-movilizacion-y-la-lucha-para-detener-al-sionismo/
