Israeli Knesset members call for starving Gaza children and denying them medical treatment

Members of the Israeli Knesset called for the systematic starvation of the population of the Gaza Strip, including children, and for denying them access to medicine and painkillers.

This came during discussions on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip by a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which deals with media and foreign relations.

Dr. Sharon Shaul

During the meeting, Dr. Sharon Shaul, from the Natan organization, which works in humanitarian aid worldwide, said, “I think that no one sitting around this table is concerned that a suffering child cannot receive painkillers or even minimal medical treatment.”

MK Amit Halevy

Likud MK Amit Halevy interrupted her and angrily said, “I’m not sure you’re speaking on our behalf that we want to treat every child and every woman, and I hope you don’t support that statement,” according to Haaretz, which reported the discussion in the committee.

The doctor insisted, “I hope you, too, don’t care that a four-year-old child with an amputated hand should not receive a painkiller, and I hope you have that compassion.”

Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit

But MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party pointed her finger at the doctor and said, “The only treatment that should be given is to you,” while another MK called her “the sickest doctor I have ever seen.”

The newspaper quoted MK Moshe Tor-Paz of the Yesh Atid party as claiming, following the meeting he initiated, that “to the best of my knowledge, the State of Israel does not intend to use starvation. I believe that even if there are non-combatants, there is nothing in the Jewish ethics that I know of that allows for starving non-combatants, and my impression is that the Israeli government is not planning to starve Gaza.”

The newspaper emphasized that Halevi and Son Har-Melech dominated the committee’s discussion, and that “many around the table certainly believed that torturing and starving Gazan children was not only legitimate but also desirable.”

Pictures of children from Gaza…