Van Jones criticized over Gaza famine claims
A fight has broken out over whether images of starving children in Gaza are real, and it is bad news for Van Jones, whose credibility on the left is collapsing.
- Van Jones claimed a widely shared photo of a starving Gaza baby was misleading because the child had a genetic illness.
- Doctors and clinics in Gaza had diagnosed that child with severe malnutrition — a pre-existing illness and starvation are not mutually exclusive.
- The World Health Organization counts hundreds of deaths in Gaza from hunger-related causes, more than a third of them children.
- A recent food-security analysis found more than a million people in Gaza — over half the population — in crisis-level hunger or worse.
- Jones has repeatedly argued online images of Gaza suffering are foreign propaganda, drawing accusations that he is running cover for Israel's government.
Outlook: Expect the argument over who controls the Gaza narrative to keep escalating as hunger deaths mount and mainstream media figures split over the word "genocide."