The Coloniality of Enforced Starvation: Reading Famine in Gaza through An Gorta Mór

Drawing on the Irish Famine, this essay argues that Israel's enforced starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza during the 2023-24 genocide is a deliberate act that advances the settler-colonial aspirations of the Zionist regime. In addition to preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the author argues that manufacturing food insecurity is part of a long-standing Israeli policy in the besieged enclave, which includes targeting essential infrastructure and other elements of food production. The essay ends with a call on political representatives in both Ireland and the United States to reflect on their own legacy of colonially enforced starvation and to intervene to bring an end to the looming famine in Gaza.