Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on Food

Legal Analysis of UN Food Rapporteur Michael Fakhri’s 2024 Report to UN General Assembly

Following is a legal analysis of the 2024 report to the  General Assembly by Michael Fakhri, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

By Dina Rovner, Legal Advisor at UN Watch

Introduction

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri’s report to the General Assembly titled Starvation and the right to food, with an emphasis on the Palestinian people’s food sovereignty (A/79/171), ignores the ten worst hunger crises around the globe in order to libel Israel, falsely accusing it of using “starvation as a tactic of genocide.” The starvation accusation has been thoroughly debunked and is blatantly contradicted by the vast amounts of food aid Israel has facilitated into Gaza since October 7—over one million tons of humanitarian aid as of September 14, 2024, including more than 793,000 tons of food and 50,000 tons of water.

The report is suffused with sweeping, hyperbolic claims demonizing Israel as the worst transgressor. For example, the very first paragraph states “Never in post-war history had a population been made to go hungry so quickly and so completely as was the case for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.” Later, Fakhri argues that “The State of Israel has deployed the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation throughout its entire history, perfecting the degree of control, suffering and death that it can cause through food systems, leading to this moment of genocide.” (Para 80). Most of the time, Fakhri provides no support at all for these broad charges, and when he does, his sources are biased and one-sided UN or NGO reports that only promote the Palestinian narrative.

The right to food is a Cuban-sponsored mandate that promotes an anti-Western, anti-capitalist agenda. Past rapporteurs include Jean Ziegler—co-founder and 2022 recipient of the Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, known for defending dictatorships like Maduro’s Venezuela, and Hilal Elver—pro-Chavez radical and wife of 9/11 denier Richard Falk who famously denied the existence of a hunger crisis in Venezuela. It is patently clear from this report that Michael Fakhri is not interested in the truth, but in promoting his mandate’s anti-Western, pro-dictatorship agenda which includes demonizing the Jewish State. Along those lines, he argues for redistributing “agrarian land more fairly” (Para 109) and to stop “corporations and States from continuing to amass great amounts of power.” (Para 110).

Worst Food Crises 2023
  • Sudan: 6.3 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Afghanistan: 6.1 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • DRC: 3.4 million people in IMPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • South Sudan: 2.9 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Bangladesh: 2.2 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Pakistan: 2.2 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Somalia: 1.9 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Haiti: 1.8 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Myanmar: 1.4 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Kenya: 1.2 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency
  • Gaza: 1.2 million people in IPC/CH Phase 4 Emergency

While there were projections that people in five countries/territories, including the Gaza Strip, would face IPC/CH Phase 5 Catastrophe in 2023, this never happened in Gaza. Furthermore, despite a March 2024 projection that a famine would occur in Gaza, the IPC’s Famine Review Committee found at the end of June that due to increase humanitarian aid “the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring.”

Critical Facts Ignored by UN SR on Food Michael Fakhri

As shown below, the report omits critical, countervailing facts that mandate the exact opposite conclusion to that derived by Fakhri.

  • Humanitarian Aid Facilitated by Israel. As noted above, the report omits any mention of the massive amounts of food aid Israel has facilitated into Gaza since October 7. In addition to the aid delivered by truck through the various crossing points, Israel also coordinated the repair of Gaza’s water network. Instead, citing no evidence, Fakhri wrongly claims “Israel has failed to enable and ensure the unhindered provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, as well as medical supplies and medical care, to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.” (Para 43).
  • Hamas Terrorism. The report completely ignores Hamas terrorism, including the October 7 attacks, Hamas’s unlawful taking, holding, and starving of Israelis as hostages, and its ongoing, indiscriminate Hamas rocket attacks both before and after October 7.
  • Hamas/Hezbollah Damage to Israeli Agriculture. While the report describes in detail the harm to Palestinian agriculture, attributing this to Israel’s ostensible “genocide” against the Palestinians (Part III, Section A), it completely ignores the extensive damage to the Israeli agricultural and food sector caused by the Hamas October 7th attack, as well as ongoing Hamas and Hezbollah rocket and drone fire. According to the head of agriculture at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, “Agriculture wasn’t collateral damage: it was a target, a deliberate target” on October 7th. The Hamas attack reportedly damaged 40,000 (~400,000 dunams) hectares of farmland in the Gaza border area. Moreover, Hezbollah attacks in the North have burned over 150,000 dunams as of September 2024.
  • Hamas Human Shield Strategy. The report omits any mention of Hamas human shield strategy in Gaza. It is well documented that Hamas extensively embedded itself within Palestinian civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including in a massive network of underground tunnels running under all of Gaza. The high level of destruction in Gaza is thus directly attributable to this Hamas strategy and does not prove genocidal intent by Israel. Indeed, Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar himself has defended Gaza civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices” which “bring glory and honor” to the Palestinians.
  • Hamas Theft of Humanitarian Aid. The report ignores Hamas commandeering humanitarian aid to Gaza and preventing civilians from accessing aid, including by shooting Gazans trying to access aid.

The omission of these critical facts is a major deficiency and enough to render Fakhri’s report completely worthless.

How Michael Fakhri Uses His Report to Reject Israel’s Right to Exist

This UN-stamped report rejects the right of Israel—a UN member state—to exist and even questions its right to membership in the UN (Para 88). It does this by demonizing Israel, specifically by accusing it of waging a starvation and dispossession campaign against the Palestinians from the moment it was created. Below are some relevant quotes from the report:

  • “The total siege that began on 9 October 2023 was a continuation of Israel’s 24-year blockade, and 75-year attack against Gaza’s food system.” (Para 65).
  • “The starvation of the Palestinian people is not a sudden and unpredictable consequence of the latest aggressions by the occupation forces but a gradual and deliberate strategy that was set in motion many years ago.” (Para 74).
  • Over the past 76 years, the State of Israel has continuously dislocated and dispossessed Palestinians from their land, regularly expanding its own occupation and settlements.” (Para 78).
  • “The State of Israel has deployed the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation throughout its entire history, perfecting the degree of control, suffering and death that it can cause through food systems, leading to this moment of genocide.” (Para 80).
  • Because of the Nakba and the creation of Israel in 1948/49, between one half to two thirds of the Palestinian people became refugees and have been denied their right to return to their villages, towns and cities of origin ever since.” (Para 86).
  • “In less than a year after its creation, it was clear that Israel was already starving Palestinian refugees.” (Para 88).

In addition to demonizing Israel from the moment it was created, the report also denies Jewish historical and legal rights to the land pre-1948. Thus, it refers to European Jewish Zionists who came to Israel in the First and Second Aliyah as “European emigrants” (Para 81), rather than “immigrants,” suggesting that they are outside European colonizers who don’t belong. The report ignores the indigenous Jewish presence in the land throughout history, the Jewish immigration from Middle Eastern countries, and the deep religious and historical connection of all Jews to the land of Israel, as exemplified in Jewish religious prayers and customs.  The report proceeds to dismiss Jewish property rights by re-casting their land purchases as “land grabs.” (Para 82).

Having dismissed the historical and legal rights of Israel and the Jewish people, the report then justifies the Arab rejection of the 1947 UN Partition Plan which led to Israel’s creation, calling it “unfair”— “Because of the political boundaries and economic interdependence, the Arab State would have been inherently subordinate to and dependent on the Jewish State.” (Para 85). Fakhri wrongly asserts that under the Partition Plan, “84% of agricultural land went to the Jewish state.” In fact, 60% of Jewish land was desert while Arabs occupied most of agricultural land. The Partition Plan’s proposed boundaries were based on demographics.

Finally, Fakhri advocates for a “communal right of return” and to “repatriate people back to Palestine.” (Para 41). In its conclusions, the report asks the General Assembly to “recognize that the Palestinian people’s right to return to Palestine is a precondition to fulfil their right to food and food sovereignty.” (Para 112). Since the influx of millions of Palestinians to Israel would end Israel as a Jewish state, demanding a communal “right of return” for Palestinian people is effectively a call to eliminate Israel. This is the goal of Hamas, as expressly stated in the Hamas Charter, and as reflected in its October 7 attack. In light of this position, it is not surprising that Fakhri wholly rejects the idea that Israel has a right to self-defense against Hamas when he maintains that “military necessity can in no way justify” the extent of the destruction in Gaza (Para 47) and concludes that “Israel is not ‘defending itself’ against a ‘terrorist organization’ but is attacking the Indigenous Palestinians as a people.” (Para 110).

Report Makes Serious Accusations Without Providing Evidence

In several instances, the report makes broad accusations charging Israel with the worst violations, insisting there is clear evidence, but fails to provide any. Some examples are below:

  • “There is clear evidence that Israeli officials have used starvation both as a war crime and as a crime against humanity…” (Para 43). The report does not cite any evidence here. Its only sources are a statement by High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, the report of the heavily biased Pillay Commission, and a statement by ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, all of which ignored relevant facts.
  • “There is also clear evidence that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people since at least October 2023.” (Para 43). Again, the report does not cite any evidence. It refers only to the same Volker Turk statement and Pillay Commission report as above. Fakhri fails to provide evidence of genocide because there is no genocide. Israel has been facilitating massive amounts of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which are more than sufficient to feed the entire population. It has also taken extensive precautions in its military operations to avoid harming civilians. Even South Africa requested an extension of its deadline to submit evidence to the International Court of Justice in its genocide case against Israel due to the lack of evidence, which was denied.
  • “It is well documented that the State of Israel has today created a regime of racial discrimination and oppression – an apartheid regime – that governs the entire territory of Palestine (E/ESCWA/ECRI/2017/1 and A/77/356).” (Para 93). Here again, the report cites no evidence, only politicized UN reports. The first cited report is a 2017 ESCWA report which was rejected by Secretary General Antonio Guterres who ordered the UN to withdraw the report. The second report is by the UNHRC’s Special Rapporteur on Palestine who is a Hamas apologist and has been condemned for antisemitism by the United States, France, and Germany.

Report Is Replete With Hamas Propaganda

Aside from the general lack of support for the main claims of the report, the report also misleads about specific incidents, promoting Hamas propaganda and failing to provide the full facts. For example:

  • So-called Flour Massacre. The report states that “Israeli security forces killed 112 people…” in the so-called “flour massacre.” (Para 57). However, this is an unproven Hamas claim that has been denied by Israel, which maintains that its soldiers did not shoot during the incident.
  • Rafah Tent Fire. The report claims that “Israeli forces set ablaze a tent camp sheltering displaced people in a designated safe zone in Rafah.” (Para 63). This is the Hamas narrative. Following the incident, the initial IDF investigation revealed that Israel had conducted a precise strike on a legitimate Hamas target with munitions that by themselves could not have caused the fire that broke out and that it had not intention of harming civilians. It appeared that the fire was caused by Hamas weapons stored near the civilian encampment.
  • June Hostage Rescue. Referring to Israel’s June 8 rescue of four hostages, the report states “On 8 June, Israeli forces killed at least 274 people and injured more than 500 by the Nuseirat refugee camp in southern Gaza.” Aside from the fact that the hostages are not mentioned, the casualty numbers are from the Hamas-run health ministry and cannot be independently verified. Moreover, the casualties could easily have been avoided had Hamas not opened fire on the rescuers in an attempt to foil the rescue.

The Report Contains Blatant Antisemitism

The report is accompanied by a comic book version with graphic illustrations that contain overtly antisemitic motifs and conspiracy theories about Israel controlling the world and being responsible for all the world’s ills. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism defines as antisemitism “using symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterize Israel or Israelis.” Fakhri’s comic book version of the report does exactly this.

One image in Part III shows the world being cracked by “Israel’s campaign of starvation and genocide,” reminiscent of classic antisemitic motifs about Jews controlling the world. The image show’s how “Israel’s campaign of starvation and genocide against the people of Gaza has created a major crack in the international system.” Part III then ends with another image of the world completely broken in half and the accompanying text “Once this cracking system crumbles, what might we build from the salvage?” This implies that the “crack” created by Israel led the entire world system to “crumble.”

 

Another image in this section is of a large dragon with many tentacles, representing the “corporations and states,” i.e., Israel in this case, which “amass great amounts of power” that they “use to manufacture scarcity and cause harm through food systems.”

The tentacles represent different modern evils—capitalism, fascism, imperialism, racism, patriarchy, extractivism—attributed generally to “corporations and states,” but the text then clarifies that the tentacles belong to Israel.

These tentacles, i.e., Israel, are all attacking the Palestinians. The accompanied text proclaims that “Israel is not ‘defending itself’ against a ‘terrorist organization’ but is attacking the indigenous Palestinians as a people.”

The image and messaging are reminiscent of antisemitic Nazi-era propaganda like the Nazi cartoon below.

Image from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia  

 

UN Watch