The Hundred Year Hunger. Reflecting on a Work in Progress

The paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve.

Ilan Pappé, On Palestine

E. Mark Windle    17 December 2024

When I started out on the current book project that maps the history of Gaza’s nutritional plight, it was obvious that capturing political context would be critical. Like so many other Middle Eastern regions over the centuries, Palestine has been shaped and reshaped by religious conflict, military invasion and occupation. Since the Bronze Age, the Canaanites, Israelites, Romans, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and the Ottoman Empire have all occupied Palestine directly, or wielded their power from afar.

That said, I see where Pappé is coming from. In my area of investigation, the episodes of food insecurity, malnutrition and famine experienced by Gazans have occurred at various points since the 1900s. But almost always, they have been the consequence of actions by an aggressor.

Why the 100-year timeline? Prior to the 1900s, Arab, Jewish, Bedouin and other communities in the Levant led fragile but self-sufficient existences, largely through subsistence farming. Large-scale enforced food insecurity has been a more recent phenomenon. To explore it, we have to consider latter-day Ottoman rule over Palestine in the early 20^th century; the British mandate; Israel’s proclamation of independence; the Egyptian / United Arab Republic and Israeli occupation of Gaza; and the subsequent series of critical incidents that have perpetuated Jewish and Arab tensions. A perfect storm doesn’t quite describe the Palestinian struggle. Rather, a cumulative assault through political upheaval, war, and mass displacement followed by population containment.

The personal motivation to explore nutritional welfare in the Gaza Strip arose from my earlier background as an NHS dietitian. Much of my 25 years in the profession was spent as a specialist on an ICU and Regional Burns Unit in a West Yorkshire hospital. From the relative comfort of that First World clinical setting, I witnessed how an optimised nutritional status can improve recovery from surgery and trauma and survival from critical illness, when adequate medical resources, a skilled multidisciplinary team and advanced nutrition support technologies are at hand. The post-October 2023 Israeli offensive resonated, not only because of the brutal and protracted nature of violence being waged on the people of Gaza, but because they were already off to a poor start nutritionally. Yes, there has been long term input from international food aid agencies and medical organisations, but they are there for a reason. For decades now Gazans have endured a neglected healthcare infrastructure, and unpredictable levels of access to essentials including food and water, whether due to poverty, conflict or blockade.

Information-sifting for historical accuracy has proven to be a major challenge for this project so far. Unbiased attempts have been made to review data from Israeli, Palestinian and NGO sources regarding food supply, nutritional adequacy and malnutrition rates. Inevitably, low thresholds must be set for the suspicion of statistical massage, false information and half-truths when it comes to government and media reports. Even academic and scientific journals appear to play a part in propaganda-mongering. Publication bias—the selection of studies for print which support a particular editorial or institutional viewpoint, over those which don’t—is evident on both sides, and at various points in the timeline. None of this is unusual during political tensions. It is what it is, and only reinforces the need for diligence during the search for objectivity.

But on polarised viewpoints, consider the fact that Amnesty International, the International Criminal Court, the US Center for Constitutional Rights, South Africa and others view Israel’s actions over the last year as genocide. Meanwhile Israel continues with its mantra of a right to self-defence, and countries that supply its arms concur (to do anything else would admit complicity). The fact remains that over 45,000 people in Gaza have died in the latest conflict, with women and children contributing to over 70% of that figure. And while the decision over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is still being dragged out, much of the surviving population in Gaza remains unable to access basic essentials, including food and water. Starvation and malnutrition may well now be the end game.

The book “The Hundred Year Hunger” by E. Mark Windle is scheduled for publication in June 2025.

(Copyright 2024) E. Mark Windle is a freelance writer, with a former career as a clinical dietitian specialising in burn injury and critical care nutrition. He has also worked as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). Full portfolio of work is available at https://windlefreelance.com/portfolio