‘If we don’t speak the silence will bury the truth’

Sarah Rees, Head of Oxfam Cymru

A week ago, on the 8th May the Welsh Government issued a written statement on Gaza. It reaffirmed its calls for the unhindered flow of aid into the territory and for progress toward a permanent ceasefire.

While well-meaning, the statement falls devastatingly short of what is needed. It offers polite appeals where moral outrage is called for, regularly demonstrated by the Welsh public they represent.

It chooses cautious diplomacy over urgent humanity. Most importantly, it fails to name what is happening in Gaza for what it is.

In the face of imminent famine and where humanitarian protections are systematically violated, the people of Wales need and expect their government to speak clearly, loudly and bravely.

Wales uniquely enshrines global responsibility in law through our Well-being of Future Generations Act—making it the only nation in the world with a legal duty to consider its global impact.

Welsh Government must ensure its own operations are not inadvertently complicit in this crisis.

Catastrophe

The latest report by the IPC, the UN backed global authority in food crises,  paints a horrifying picture. Nearly half a million people in Gaza are facing starvation. Children are dying. Famine is increasingly likely with the entire population of Gaza, over 2 million people, at risk.

In the words of Bushra Khalidi, ‘people are eating animal feed. They are boiling grass…families are slaughtering their horses – something unimaginable in our culture, something sacred – just to feed their children’. These are the actions of those facing malnutrition and death.

In its latest projections, the IPC warns that nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be malnourished over the next 11 months.

Our Oxfam colleagues and partners are witnessing scenes that defy belief, children too weak to cry, dizzy with hunger, hair falling out, suffering with sickness as they are malnourished. ‘In addition, nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women also require treatment for acute malnutrition during this period.’ Meanwhile, the normality of life has disappeared for all the children of Gaza, their normal daily lives destroyed by the war.

Crucially, the IPC report only reflects the situation up to the 6^th May. Since the 2^nd March no aid has entered Gaza. The siege continues. The hunger deepens. Yet still the world dithers.

Let’s be absolutely clear: the people of Gaza are not dying because of crop failure, or logistics. They are being starved – deliberately – through a military blockade that contravenes international humanitarian law. Water sources have been bombed. Food convoys have been denied entry. Humanitarian workers have been killed in record numbers.

This is an overt attack on the basic human rights of Palestinians in Gaza. It is not a tragedy it is a crime.

Welsh Government – insipid words in the face of injustice

In this context the Welsh Government statement – whilst acknowledging the need for aid and peace – is tepid and inadequate. At a time when international humanitarian law is being shredded in plain sight, we must do more than simply “urge all parties” to respect the rules. We must demand it, unequivocally.

Oxfam Cymru are calling on Welsh Government to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the deliberate starvation of the Gaza population, a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a betrayal of our shared humanity.

Welsh Government must press their UK Government colleagues to take meaningful action and demand that UK government lends its weight to a more robust response to Israel’s actions.

As our CEO, Dr Halima Begum recently reminded us, ‘Oxfam is a humanitarian organisation, not a political one. Its founding principles require it to safeguard the lives of all people, irrespective of nationality, faith or politics.’

This is not about sides. It is about survival. It is about justice. And it is about ensuring that international law means something — especially for the most vulnerable.

Bearing witness, demanding action

At Oxfam Cymru we will not be silent whilst our colleagues, partners and fellow humanitarians are killed while delivering aid. Gaza is also the deadliest place on earth for humanitarian workers, more than 400 aid workers and 1,300 health workers have been reported killed in Gaza since October 2023.

This is a fact of which we are acutely aware as two of our partners in Oxfam, involved in providing life-saving care, died in Israeli air strikes on Jabalia.

This is despite the requirement under international humanitarian law for humanitarian workers to be protected. These are attacks on the very idea of humanitarian protection.

As Halima said, ‘Even wars have laws, and it is widely accepted that Israel is breaching them. Our colleagues and partners on the ground have seen first-hand how starvation is being used as a weapon of war against civilians’.

Wales must speak up

Wales has a proud history of standing on the side of justice – from coal miners standing in solidarity with anti-apartheid movements, to communities welcoming refugees in our Nation of Sanctuary approach.

Oxfam Cymru calls on Welsh Government to:

• Publicly demand the immediate, unconditional reinstatement of humanitarian aid access to Gaza.
• Advocate to UK counterparts for the suspension of arms sales and export licences to Israel, in line with the UK’s legal obligations under international humanitarian law.
• Ensure Welsh public resources and government operations are not complicit in this crisis.

As the leader of a feminist government in Wales, I echo this call to Eluned Morgan, ‘if not me who, if not now, when’?

If we do not speak, the silence will bury the truth – and with it the lives of thousands more.