Week 11: Debaters call on Israel to take responsibility for the famine in Gaza

The people of Gaza are starving and Israel must take responsibility for it, several write debaters. Greta Thunberg's climate demonstration outside the Riksdag has also been the subject of debate during the past week.

A quarter of the population of the Gaza Strip, roughly 600 people, is on the brink of starvation. Several children have also died as a result of malnutrition - as Israel blocks aid to Gaza. Several debaters have touched on this during the past week.

Expressen's editor-in-chief tells about people in northern Gaza scavenging for edible weeds among the ruins and grinding animal feed to bake bread substitutes.

- It is unsustainable, even for Israel, they write.

They point out that before the war, 500 trucks entered Gaza daily, now there are around 100.

- It is nevertheless Israel's responsibility as the occupying power to ensure that the civilian population does not starve. Even war has laws, writes editorial board.

Peter Wennblad, Svenska Dagbladet's lead writer, also writes about Israel's responsibility for the situation in Gaza.

- Having said that, Israel as the occupying power must take its responsibility under international law for the rampant hunger and widespread suffering that now prevails in the Palestinian tent camps and ruins.

Although Åsa Regnér, secretary general at Rädda Barnen, writes about the fact that more and more children are threatened by starvation.

- This is happening despite the fact that, according to international law, Israel must not only allow but actively facilitate the implementation of humanitarian aid based on the needs of the civilian population.

She points out that over 12 children have so far been killed in the attacks by Israeli forces, but that thousands of children's lives could have been saved and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza avoided.

- Sweden and the EU can still save lives and contribute to an end to the nightmare by vigorously working for a lasting ceasefire, unimpeded access for aid organizations, and comprehensive aid for children's safety, education and health, she writes.

Gunnar Hökmark, chairman of the think tank Frivärld and former MEP (L), focuses instead on the demonstrations against the war in Gaza. He believes that it is problematic not to distance ourselves from Hamas, as the terrorist organization deliberately creates civilian victims.

- When you claim that Israel, a democratic nation with a military force supported by the moral values of democracy, deliberately kills children, it is not done for the Palestinians who are affected - but to spread hatred, he writes.

Greta Thunberg's demonstration: "I was in a great mood"

Another topic that was discussed during the week was the demonstration by Greta Thunberg and other climate activists outside the Riksdag in Stockholm.

- For that kind of activism, the doors of the Riksdag should remain closed. The climate issue, like the members of parliament, must find other ways, writes Mattias Svensson, editorial writer at Svenska Dagbladet.

However, several other editorial writers are of a different opinion.

- The activists should take other paths, says Mattias Svensson in Svenska Dagbladet. I wonder curiously who he means, when all other doors are closed and politics still fails, writes Annie Croona, lead writer at Dagens ETC.

- I don't know how you who are reading this know about the protest, but I myself was in a great mood when I was reached by the news. It's very nice to have people who do something and aren't just passivated by anxiety, type Aftonbladet's lead writer Fanny Jönsson.