Vigil #73 and the ‘Pan Plan’

Our ‘duty to starve Gazans’ says Likud member

April 2025

The seventy third vigil took place yesterday 26 April with at one point 40 in attendance. It is surprising that this has kept going with good support. A feature this time was a lot of photographs taken by passers by. The situation in Gaza goes from bad to worse with all aid cut off and starvation likely. Scenes of people clamouring for food is shocking especially as many are children. Unwra and World Food Programme say their stocks of food are exhausted. The Israeli government says adequate food and medical supplies are being allowed in but Hamas are stealing them. As journalists are not allowed in it is difficult to verify but this seems very unlikely.

There was a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday last week on Holocaust Memorial Day to remember the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis. But it took on a different meaning for some Israelis who are concerned about the killing of thousands of people in Gaza which has now passed 51,000 with more dying in daily strikes. Many women staged a demonstration holding empty cooking pots to symbolise the starvation of people in Gaza.

For some Israeli politicians this is deliberate policy. As Haaretz has reported:

Israeli lawmaker Moshe Saada of PM Netanyahu’s Likud party said in an interview on Channel 14 that it’s Israel’s “duty” to starve Gazans. Criticizing the IDF chief, who reportedly said he does not intend to follow such a policy, Saada said, “I do intend to starve the Gazans – that’s our duty. Our duty is to expel the Gazans.” (Image: Israel National News)

Vigil 74 – change of approach

Next Saturday’s vigil – number 74 – will be in a different form. Attendees are asked to bring an empty cooking pot of some kind (steel, aluminium), to echo the protest Israeli women took in Tel Aviv last week.

Vigil No. 73

Sources: Haaretz, Channel 14, Guardian

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