A group of prominent Israeli public figures, including artists, academics, and intellectuals, has issued an extraordinary plea for the international community to impose “crippling sanctions” on Israel, in response to what they describe as the state’s brutal campaign of starvation against Palestinians in Gaza.
In a letter published by The Guardian, the 31 signatories, among them an Academy Award winner and a former attorney general, accuse Israel of deliberately starving the population of Gaza and contemplating the forced expulsion of millions. They call on the international community to act decisively to end what they describe as a humanitarian catastrophe.
“The international community must impose crippling sanctions on Israel until it ends this brutal campaign and implements a permanent ceasefire,” the letter reads.
Among the signatories are Yuval Abraham, a filmmaker and Academy Award recipient; Michael Ben-Yair, a former Israeli attorney general; Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and one-time head of the Jewish Agency; and several recipients of the prestigious Israel Prize, the country’s highest cultural honour. Other notable figures include the painter Michal Na’aman, poet Aharon Shabtai, filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, choreographer Inbal Pinto, and Lebanese director Samuel Maoz.
The letter is particularly striking in a nation where speaking out against military policy often invites severe backlash, and where legislation has been promoted to penalise those who advocate for international sanctions.
It arrives at a time of growing international horror over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, now in its 21st month. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed. The world has been confronted with harrowing images of emaciated children and reports of Israeli forces opening fire on hungry civilians at food distribution sites.
This internal Israeli dissent mirrors mounting alarm across the global Jewish diaspora. On Sunday, the Reform movement, the largest Jewish denomination in the United States, issued a strong rebuke of Israel’s role in Gaza’s deepening famine.
“No one should be unaffected by the pervasive hunger experienced by thousands of Gazans,” the statement read. “The situation is dire, and it is deadly… The Jewish state is also culpable in this human disaster. Blocking food, water, medicine, and power, especially for children, is indefensible.”
The Reform movement urged Jewish communities not to let grief harden into indifference, nor loyalty to Israel eclipse compassion. “Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment,” the statement concluded.
In a separate development on Monday, two prominent Israeli human rights organisations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, released reports characterising Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal”, marking yet another break from official narratives and a significant escalation in the language used by domestic watchdogs.
Israeli PM speaks on starvation
Earlier this month, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert made headlines when he described a proposed “humanitarian city” in Rafah as a modern-day concentration camp. He warned that forcing Palestinians into such an area would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Despite these intensifying criticisms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Israeli officials and right-wing NGOs, continues to deny that famine exists in Gaza, a stance contradicted by the United Nations’ own food security assessments and even US President Donald Trump, who recently acknowledged “real starvation” in the territory.
The Israeli government has been contacted for comment.
