Pregnant women in Gaza describe malnutrition and extreme distress caused by Israel's blockade

I find it interesting that many people on this thread seem to be more concerned about the pregnant women of Gaza than Hamas are.

Variety of reasons, but primarily because of past history of Palestinians causing civil unrest when they’re in other countries (see Black September, Lebanon, Kuwait). There’s also the view that if the civilian population is evacuated then they won’t be allowed back which the Arab states don’t want so they have to stay put.

It’s entirely possible for a large number of civilians to be evacuated…just see Ukraine. It’s yet another peculiarity with Palestine that the preferred options is to force millions of civilians to remain in an active war zone for political reasons.

Hamas also doesn’t want them to leave as then they lose their human shields. Through the warm Israel has been informing the civilians where they’re going to be operating and Hamas have been telling the people to stay put. They use the movement of their own people as a defensive strategy.

Yes, as I mentioned up thread I thought there had been pressure on some Israeli women to make sure they have babies to keep population levels growing. Not surprising when you consider the destruction of the Jewish population in so much of Europe. How it manifests itself in reality I know less about. Women in Israel have more rights than Palestinians e.g. marital rape is illegal in Israel but not in Gaza which will have a bearing on their relative autonomy and agency.

I can't see that quote in the link you put. Golda Meir was a long time ago. I don't think Hamas's expecting women to bear children is in response to her. The subjugation of women through childbirth is pretty characteristic of religious fundamentalism.

Yes i think it is incredibly important that we keep putting pressure on politicians to respond to this. I'm in the EU and have been writing to meps on this. Israel are in breach of our trade agreements and are the recipients of billions in funding from the EU. This needs to stop until they can begin acting in line with the values of the EU.

This situation reached crisis point a long time ago, Israel are moving forward with their plan to push the population south and this plan involves stopping aid to Northern Gaza in an attempt to starve people including pregnant women and children from their homes. It needs to end now.

But Hamas and the authoritarian fundamentalism they espouse has a bearing on this situation. And It was Arafat who said the Arab woman's womb was his greatest weapon, long before Hamas so I think there is a lot of culture to unpick here. Women bear the brunt, as always.

But no one has been characterising the oppressed as rapists in this thread. It has been acknowledged that people in Gaza live under different laws to us in the West and thus a husband wouldn’t be accused of raping his wife even if she was reluctant. But we can still feel sorry for these women and babies.

We are not the KKK or Tommy Robinson, so please don’t compare us to them. We are women concerned about other women and questioning if they have all have choice about getting pregnant under what are extremely difficult circumstances to put it mildly.

And I don't think acknowledging the behaviour of men and misogyny in Palestinian society justifies attacks on them. I do think some solidarity with Palestinian women would be justified.

Noone was 'characterising the oppressed as rapists'. I and others merely pointed out that some women will have been raped and that that is an additional trauma in a horrible situation and then men had to shoulder some responsibility for the situation too.

Of course. She is happy for her children to be martyred. Hamas want Palestinian women to keep having babies so they (a) have more martyrs and (b) can blame their deaths on Israel.
As a society we should be questioning how we deal with this level of fundamentalism.

One problem is there are women like the one in this video who don't see their babies as humans but as martyrs to sacrifice for Hamas. How on earth do we rationalise this? x.com/EYakoby/status/1961830411178242444?t=AV0IvgKCJ_lKuZqeqr1W9Q&s=09

I wasn't concentrating on it. I was merely responding to the extraordinary pushback and the nasty personal attacks. If you now acknowledge that it will have happened will you know retract your comments calling me and others racist and spreading Israeli government propaganda?

I agree that letting in more aid is essential and that aid should be targetted at the most vulnerable. I've not seen anyone on this thread say otherwise.

As for your second paragraph, I'm afraid its not for you to determine what others should believe or do, and in what order. If someone doesn't want a discussion I'd suggest maybe a discussion board isnt the right place to post.

And something that could solve the problem of starving pregnant women as per the thread is Israel letting aid agencies do what they are trained to do and feed people without arbitrary restrictions. Why are people not calling for this fix that could be implemented tomorrow?

All of this talking in circles whilst a government is purposefully starving these vulnerable women. Call for harsh sanctions on the government starving these women and wishing for their cleansing, end this now then chat about whether or not you think women should be pregnant in a war zone rather than doing it whilst watching them suffer.

I think the point is that there are lots of problems and most people are capable of being outraged by more than one thing at once. Everyone has acknowledged that its a terrible situation. Nobody is disputing that. Its appalling.

I don't think anyone has expressed outrage that women are pregnant. What is strange is the outrage expressed when people have explored why women in this situation are pregnant. How could anyone who ares about women and babies not be interested in exploring that? If you're not interested that is actually ok, but to accuse people of thinking it is worth exploring of being shameful, disgusting, racist? Really? On a parenting site?

And I will never apologise for thinking women shouldn't be coerced into sex. It is a well documented fact that it happens in all conflict. There is nothing wrong or racist in pointing out that it will have happened in this conflict and anyone who claims it must not be spoken of is doing Palestinian women a disservice.

What should we be outraged by here, women being pregnant or pregnant women being purposefully starved? One is a war crime, the other is people seeking comfort in each other when they have no idea if they will make it to the next hour never mind the next day.

If I were living in the most dangerous place on earth you bet I would be keeping my children close, keeping my husband close(and yes that would involve intimacy) seeing my extended family as often as I could because what else is there?

The problem is not pregnant women, the problem is the government that has openly expressed their wish to ethnically cleanse these women and their babies and are actively starving them.

@Everexpanding why are you repeating your accusation that people are being racist and involved in spreading Israeli government propaganda?

Why do none of the neighbouring Arab countries offer to help them?