Hunger Games: How Food Became Weaponized Again

The global community has failed to adequately condemn and halt the use of starvation as an instrument of warfare.

With the emergence of technological advancements like artificial intelligence and drones, the nature of warfare has seemingly changed the way governments think about war. Through information technology, states can now create opportunities that give them a clear advantage on the battlefield while minimizing troop casualties and collateral damage to civilian populations. Yet, despite these technical improvements, an age-old strategy has reared its ugly head in war rooms from the South Caucasus to the Middle East: starvation.

Using access to food as a weapon has sadly become a popular tool for autocratic governments to disrupt the lives of innocent people while trying to force concessions that benefit their interests.

Leaders like Vladimir Putin hold the global food supply hostage by attacking Ukraine’s ports, crippling the Black Sea grain exports that account for 30 percent of the world’s wheat, 60 percent of the world’s sunflower oil, and 20 percent of the world’s corn.

Moscow’s actions were followed by a nearly 10-month blockade by Azerbaijan of the only road linking more than 120,000 Armenians, including 30,000 children, in Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world. This severely limited access to food and other critical supplies as Baku sought to overtake the disputed territory.

And we are now seeing it take place in Gaza. By turning to this type of playbook, Israel is playing a very dangerous game if it’s trying to use food to break the spirit and resolve of the Palestinian people. They have every right to defend themselves and defeat Hamas, but they have a moral responsibility to make sure that it’s done without an entire population starving to death.

In many ways, making life inhospitable is just another form of ethnic cleansing. That is why the parallels between Azerbaijan’s blockade and Israel’s refusal to let humanitarian aid into Gaza could not be starker. Both view food as a strategic tool in achieving their objectives.

Under the false pretense of environmentalism, Azerbaijan justified its blockade by claiming that they were raising the alarm about eco-terrorism in Nagorno-Karabakh. By limiting access to food, medicine, gas, electricity, and other critical supplies, Azerbaijan was able to make living conditions so unbearable that it forced Armenians to leave the region. And that is exactly what happened when, in September 2023, the entire Armenian population fled, making it the largest displacement of Armenians since the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Similarly, we have seen Israel defend its actions by claiming that Hamas will steal any aid flowing into Gaza and then sold back to the people to finance their war effort.

While that might be true to some extent, it still does not justify how a democratic country like Israel can starve an entire population into submission. After all, this is the same government that for years propped up Hamas as a political trade-off to split power between the Gaza Strip and West Bank and allowed millions of dollars to enter Gaza unchecked.

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no qualms in lining the pockets of Hamas back then for political expediency, then he should have no issue in feeding innocent women and children now for humanitarian purposes. And while Israel recently announced that it will allow a “basic quantity” of food into Gaza after a nearly three-month ban, it hasn’t gone far enough as the starvation-related death toll continues to rise.

That is why there needs to be a stronger outcry from the international community. Sadly, these actions have been met with collective indifference and selective silence. Azerbaijan was allowed to maintain its illegal blockade without any global condemnation or accountability due in large part to its strategic geographical position and its large deposits of natural resources.

There were some intrepid voices like Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the ICC, who called Azerbaijan’s actions a genocide and said it was one of the world’s largest refugee and humanitarian crises at that time. Yet, not enough political leaders had the will and courage to stand up to Azerbaijan’s petro-dictator Ilham Aliyev.

In recent days, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert strongly criticized Israel’s actions and purpose in Gaza. Pope Leo XIV also entered the fray to urge Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza in one of his first public appearances as the new pontiff. But again, not enough action has taken place to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Willfully impeding food and aid to a helpless population should be treated as a war crime, but serious enforcement so far has been modest at best. Azerbaijan was able to evade responsibility and accountability for its actions, setting a dangerous precedent. For that reason alone, we cannot make the same mistake in Gaza. Too many innocent lives, both today and in the future, are at stake.

About the Author: Stephan Pechdimaldji

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide. You can follow him on X at @spechdimaldji.