Politik als Wissenschaft getarnt: Die Glaubwürdigkeitskrise von IPC -Hungersnotanalysen in Gaza
https://govextra.gov.il/mda/ipc/gaza/
Politik als Wissenschaft getarnt: Die Glaubwürdigkeitskrise von IPC -Hungersnotanalysen in Gaza
https://govextra.gov.il/mda/ipc/gaza/
6 Kommentare
This is an official response from israel’s government to the recent IPC report about declaring the „Famine“ in Gaza. Archive link: https://archive.md/4ERIN
**Summary**: The IPC declared famine in Gaza City in August 2025, but the decision was based on selective and distorted data rather than its own established standards.
Malnutrition figures were misrepresented, mortality rates were far below famine thresholds, and positive developments such as rising aid, falling food prices, and expanded access were ignored.
Israel was excluded from the analysis, forecasts were consistently skewed toward worst-case scenarios, and flawed methods replaced rigorous surveys.
The result is a systemic credibility crisis for the IPC, with reports that contradict evidence, lack transparency, and appear driven more by politics than by science.
**I will add myself: According to the standards used world wide, even if all deaths in Gaza since October 7 were due to malnutrition (None from war, none from sickness, none from old age, and we believe Hamas death numbers) – It would still fail to meet the the minimum criteria for a „Famine“ (In fact, it won’t even be close) which is supposed to be the worse state of starvation possible according to the IPC.**
This doesn’t mean there is no place to discuss possible issues with aid to Gaza. It is a war zone with great suffering.
But when the accusations become so obviously exaggerated to the point of ridicule, the possibility of a real discussion goes flying out the window.
The claim that the IPC abandoned its own standards to declare Gaza is objectively true and undeniable if you look at the IPC’s published classification manual the latest version being 3.1 (2021).
There are special requirements for “famine” classifications. They need strong (R2) evidence for all 3 of the following:
1) Household survey of self reports indicating food insecurity at a certain level
2). Crude death rate of 2/10,000 daily, *only of deaths due to starvation/malnutrition alone
3). Weight for height scores below a threshold for 30% of the population.
The IPC had 2 Household surveys, one of which (source 1) met the threshold and one (source 2) did not.
They had no evidence of crude death rate being anywhere near the required rate and lots of evidence it wasn’t – but they hand wave this away by saying most deaths are underreported by Hamas (GMoH) – and just make the assumption with no evidence that 180+ people are starving to death every day in the Gaza Governant alone.
-They use MUAC (less reliable) instead of weight for height, and claim the manual allows this. Except the manual explicitly says MUAC can’t be used for famine determinations and only allowed for “famine likely” classifications.
So they only met 1/3 criteria – the survey which is the least reliable of the 3.
The entire purpose of the IPC is having a defined set of standards and criteria so that “famine” isn’t used as a political propaganda tool. Standards they just threw out to make this classification.
It really is a shame, like how people were claiming Israel was committing genocide in Gaza before Israel even entered the strip after Oct 7.
In their mind Israel fighting back after being attacked = Genocide & has the whole time before they even began fighting back.
The claim that the IPC “abandoned its own standards” to declare famine in Gaza doesn’t hold up when you actually look at the 2021 IPC manual. The big talking point is that they used MUAC (mid-upper arm circumference) instead of weight-for-height to measure malnutrition, and critics say this isn’t allowed. In reality, MUAC is explicitly listed as a valid alternative in the IPC guidelines, with its own famine threshold (15% GAM by MUAC ≈ 30% GAM by WHZ). This wasn’t some improvised lowering of the bar – it’s part of the standard methodology that’s been in place for years.
Another criticism is that the IPC ignored mortality data, but what they actually do is triangulate across multiple indicators: food consumption, malnutrition, and death rates. Mortality reporting in Gaza is messy and incomplete, but the Famine Review Committee judged there was still “reasonable evidence” of famine when all the available data was combined. That’s the whole point of the process – to avoid relying on a single imperfect dataset. Add to that the fact that independent experts outside the UN have been warning about famine conditions for months, and the picture is clear: the Gaza famine classification is consistent with the IPC’s manual and process.
The narrative that they threw out the rulebook is a political line, not a technical one.
There is significant bias against Israel in international institutions, and this is just the latest example.
Look at the number of UN condemnations for each country. Israel is far and away the most condemned nation in the world, more than North Korea, Eritrea, Russia, Somalia, Myanmar – all of which have much worse going on.
The anti-Israel bias comes from two places: misplaced Western leftist guilt and Islamism. Western leftists see Israel as an extension of the West, a settler-colonial project of white people oppressing the poor browns. Islamists see Israel as an historical anomaly and anathema to political Islam that nonbelievers control land that was previously dominated by Islam. These two worldviews both impose themselves on the facts on the ground, and produce narratives that are misleading at least and outright lies at worst.
The combination of Muslim countries and Western leftist countries outweigh any other blocs internationally, hence the UN votes and pressure on the IPC.
Leaving to one side the Israeli state, the Israelis stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank are literally called settlers.