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“When Hunger Becomes a Weapon: New Zealand's Complicity in Gaza's Engineered Starvation” - 3 August 2025

The Starving of Gaza: Colonialism's Most Vicious Tool Deployed Again

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

03 Aug 2025 — 17 min read

Kia ora koutou katoa. Ko au ko Ivor Jones, Te Māori Green Lantern, kaitiaki e whakapuaki nei i nga korero parau, te kaikiri ma, te kaikino hoki me te neoliberalism mai i te taha matau tawhiti.

Greetings all. I am Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern, guardian exposing misinformation, white supremacy, racism and neoliberalism from the far right.

New Zealanders wake each morning to news of deliberately starved Palestinian children1 while our government counts coins and talks trade deals. This 1News story about a Gaza family's desperate daily hunt for food2 isn't just another tragic tale from a faraway land - it's a mirror reflecting our own colonial past and present complicity in weaponized hunger.

What unfolds in Gaza today is the same calculated starvation that our tupuna faced during colonial land wars, the same engineered famine that killed millions in Bengal while Churchill's Britain prospered3. From the Crown's systematic destruction of Māori food systems in the 1860s to Israel's calculated starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians today, the colonial playbook remains unchanged: starve them into submission.

This essay exposes how New Zealand's pathetic humanitarian gestures and ongoing economic ties with Israel make us complicit in what experts now confirm is genocide through engineered starvation4 1. While our government wrings its hands and counts aid dollars, children in Gaza waste away according to a deliberate Israeli strategy to make life unlivable for Palestinians.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/08/02/from-dawn-to-dusk-a-gaza-family-focuses-on-one-thing-finding-food/

Background: The Colonial Roots of Weaponized Hunger

Understanding Gaza's current starvation crisis requires acknowledging that hunger has always been colonialism's favored weapon5 6. As Indigenous scholar Raj Patel notes, "famine is a function of repression" - it emerges from the politics of food distribution, not food scarcity5.

The 1943 Bengal famine exemplifies this colonial strategy perfectly3. While 3 million Indians starved to death, Churchill's Britain continued extracting grain shipments to feed the imperial war machine. Churchill's racist dismissal of Bengali suffering - asking why Gandhi hadn't died yet if famine was so severe - reveals the dehumanization necessary for such calculated cruelty3.

This mirrors exactly what Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on October 9, 2023: "There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel" for Gaza's "human animals"7. The language of dehumanization enables the weaponization of basic human needs.

For Māori, this resonates deeply. During the New Zealand Wars, colonial forces systematically destroyed our kumara crops, burned food stores, and poisoned waterways to force surrender5. The Crown's strategy was identical to Israel's today: make survival impossible to break resistance.

Gaza's Engineered Famine

Gaza Humanitarian Crisis: Scale of Suffering - The staggering numbers behind the deliberately engineered catastrophe

The statistics from Gaza paint a picture of deliberate, calculated destruction that meets every legal definition of genocide through starvation4 1. Over 59,000 Palestinians have been killed and 143,000 injured since October 20238. But the numbers that reveal the true nature of Israel's strategy are even more damning: 90% of Gaza's homes have been damaged or destroyed, 320,000 children are at risk of acute malnutrition, and the entire population of 2.1 million faces crisis-level hunger4 8.

This isn't the byproduct of war - it's the intended outcome. UN agencies now confirm that "the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza"1. Two of three famine thresholds have been reached: plummeting food consumption and acute malnutrition. The third threshold - mass deaths from starvation - is already occurring, with 101 children confirmed dead from hunger-related causes just since mid-July9.

As Palestinian liberation activist Nadia Abu-Shanab observes, this connects directly to Māori experiences of colonial violence: "We are here to live forever and ever and ever. We're not just here to fight, we're here to live"10. The shared understanding between Indigenous peoples facing settler colonialism creates natural solidarity - we recognize the same tactics used against our own ancestors.

New Zealand's Pathetic Response: Aid as Cover for Complicity

New Zealand's Gaza Aid: Token Gestures While Genocide Unfolds - A pittance compared to the scale of engineered starvation

New Zealand's response to Gaza's engineered famine reveals the hollow nature of our supposed humanitarian values. Our government has pledged a pathetic NZ$32 million in total aid across three years11 12 while maintaining profitable economic relationships with Israel worth hundreds of millions annually13 14.

To put this in perspective: Gaza needs 62,000 tons of food aid monthly just to prevent mass starvation4. New Zealand's entire three-year aid contribution wouldn't fund even one month of adequate humanitarian response. Meanwhile, two-way trade between New Zealand and Israel exceeds NZ$42 million annually in normal times13, meaning we make more money trading with Israel than we spend trying to keep Palestinians alive.

This isn't humanitarian leadership - it's calculated public relations designed to deflect criticism while maintaining profitable relationships with an apartheid state. Foreign Minister Winston Peters' announcement of aid packages always comes with careful language about "working with international partners" and "supporting UN mechanisms"15 16, never directly challenging Israel's deliberate starvation strategy.

The hypocrisy becomes even starker when examining our sanctions regime. We've imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine17, but refuse similar measures against Israel despite its systematic destruction of Gaza's food systems. This reveals that our foreign policy serves Western imperial interests, not genuine humanitarian principles.

The Economics of Complicity: Following the Money

Colonial Weaponization of Hunger: From Bengal to Gaza - A visual representation of starvation as imperial strategy

Behind New Zealand's tepid response to Gaza's genocide lies a web of economic relationships that prioritize profit over Palestinian lives. Research reveals our Superannuation Fund holds over NZ$140 million in companies connected to illegal Israeli settlements18 19, while continuing military equipment exports to Israel despite mounting evidence of war crimes20 21 22.

The revolving door between New Zealand and Israeli tech sectors tells its own story. Former Prime Minister John Key was courted extensively by Israeli interests, with local Jewish community leaders hoping his heritage would create stronger economic ties23. The relationship bears fruit: Israeli companies have deep connections to New Zealand's venture capital sector, with Benjamin Netanyahu himself crediting Sir Roger Douglas's "Rogernomics" as inspiration for Israel's neoliberal economic transformation24.

This economic entanglement explains why our government refuses meaningful action. Labour's call for the Super Fund to divest its NZ$140 million in settlement-connected companies was met with bureaucratic delays and excuses18. Meanwhile, New Zealand companies continue exporting military equipment to Israel through carefully structured approval processes that provide plausible deniability21 22.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's own documents reveal the calculated nature of these relationships. A 2025 report warns that Middle East conflicts could disrupt New Zealand's trade with Gulf Cooperation Council countries - our sixth largest export market - yet makes no mention of moral obligations regarding Israel's war crimes14.

This is neoliberalism at its most grotesque: reducing genocide to a cost-benefit analysis where Palestinian children's lives are weighed against potential trade disruption.

Māori Values versus Colonial Violence

As tangata whenua, we understand that what happens in Gaza connects directly to our own struggles against colonization. The tactics are identical: land theft, cultural destruction, economic strangulation, and when resistance emerges, calculated starvation to break the people's will10 25 26.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi enshrines principles of partnership, protection and participation that stand in direct opposition to colonial violence anywhere it occurs10. When Māori leaders speak at Waitangi about Palestinian solidarity, we're not making abstract political statements - we're recognizing the same colonial system that tried to destroy us25.

The concept of kaitiakitanga demands we protect those who cannot protect themselves. When Israeli forces prevent aid from reaching starving children, they violate not just international law but the fundamental Indigenous principle that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers26.

Māori support for Palestine runs deep because we recognize settler colonial tactics10 25. The Israeli strategy of making Gaza "unlivable" echoes exactly what the Crown attempted here - systematic destruction of Indigenous food systems, forced displacement, and cultural erasure designed to eliminate us as peoples.

As Māori academic and activist collective Zines4Pal states: "We as tangata whenua will forever be in solidarity alongside tangata whenua. We remain committed and proactive in our learning and unlearning, and ensure our sight and hearts are open to our indigenous understanding and relationships"26.

This solidarity isn't charity - it's recognition of shared struggle against the same imperial system.

Implications: New Zealand's Moment of Moral Choice

New Zealand faces a defining moment that will determine whether we truly stand for the values we claim to represent or continue enabling genocide through calculated inaction. Our allies are moving beyond empty statements: Canada has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood, the UK has threatened conditional recognition, and France has joined joint statements demanding immediate action27.

Yet New Zealand remains paralyzed by economic considerations and fear of upsetting our Five Eyes partners. This moral cowardice will define our international reputation for generations. When future historians examine this genocide, they will note which countries acted decisively and which hid behind bureaucratic excuses while children starved.

The implications extend beyond foreign policy. Indigenous communities worldwide are watching how settler colonial states respond to Indigenous liberation struggles. Our response to Palestine directly impacts our credibility with Indigenous peoples globally, including our own Māori communities who increasingly recognize the connections between struggles10 25 26.

For Māori, this moment tests whether our Crown partnership can evolve beyond its colonial origins. Can Te Tiriti principles be applied internationally, or do they remain confined to domestic political management? The answer will determine whether constitutional partnership has genuine transformative potential or remains another colonial control mechanism.

The Time for Moral Courage

The engineered starvation of Gaza represents colonialism's most vicious weapon deployed with 21st-century efficiency. While Palestinian children waste away according to calculated Israeli strategy, New Zealand counts coins and maintains profitable relationships with their killers.

This isn't complexity requiring nuanced analysis - it's genocide requiring immediate action28. Our pathetic aid contributions and continued economic ties with Israel make us complicit in weaponized hunger that deliberately targets children4 1.

As Māori, we cannot remain silent while the same colonial tactics used against our tupuna are deployed against Palestinian whānau today. The connections between struggles are clear: settler colonial states use identical strategies of land theft, cultural destruction, and calculated starvation to eliminate Indigenous peoples5 6.

The Crown has a choice: continue enabling genocide through calculated inaction, or honor Te Tiriti principles by standing decisively against colonial violence wherever it occurs. This means immediate comprehensive sanctions on Israel, divestment from settlement-connected companies, recognition of Palestinian statehood, and genuine humanitarian leadership proportionate to the crisis.

Every day our government delays meaningful action, more Palestinian children join the ranks of starvation victims in a genocide enabled by Western complicity and neoliberal prioritization of profit over human life.

History will record which side we chose when genocide unfolded before our eyes. The choice remains ours - for now.

Ko Ivor Jones ahau, Te Māori Green Lantern

I am Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern

Ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa who find value in this mahi. For those with capacity and inclination, koha to support this kaupapa can be contributed to HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. I understand these are challenging economic times for whānau, so please only contribute if you are able and wish to support this work exposing the truth about power structures harming our people.

The Māori Green Lantern fighting misinformation and disinformation from the far right

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