Jonathan Turner, the chief executive for UK Lawyers for Israel, has been met with backlash after saying that the war may actually help Palestinians increase their life expectancy through tackling Gaza’s obesity problem in a letter to the Co-Operative Group’s Council and Board, penned last Friday.
Turner’s comments came in response to the Co-operative Group’s annual general meeting, where a motion was set to be debated on the company's boycott of Israeli products.
Turning criticized the motion for referencing the Lancet claim that 186,000 Palestinians are likely to be killed as a result of the conflict.
“The [Lancet] letter also ignored factors that may increase average life expectancy in Gaza, bearing in mind that one of the biggest health issues in Gaza prior to the current war was obesity,” Turner remarked.
Turner later added: “We first pointed out that the letter published in the Lancet on 20 July 2024, to which the motion evidently referred, did not claim that 186,000 Gazans had died in the current war. It did, however, claim – without foundation – that 186,000 Gaza would be likely to die eventually as a result of the war.
“So we pointed out, secondly, that this claim was based on entirely unfounded speculation, which also ignored factors that might result in lengthening the lives of Gazans, given the public health situation existing in Gaza prior to the war, including the extent of obesity. These factors include the possible reduction in the availability of confectionery and cigarettes.
“In the context in which they were made, our statements were accurate and objective.”
The full letter can be viewed here.
Pro-Palestinian activists slam UKLFI's Gaza obesity comments
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, condemned Turner’s comments, telling the Guardian: “As children in the Gaza Strip face the growing risk of starvation, illness and death, the suggestion by the head of UK Lawyers for Israel that they might benefit from weight loss is utterly sickening. These repulsive comments illustrate exactly what it means to be ‘for Israel’ and how low its apologists are prepared to sink in their attempts to justify genocide in Gaza.”
Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), wrote on X that the comments represented “atrocity propaganda.”
Another UKLFI atrocity propaganda this week was that there are no starving children in Gaza just "a few photographs of a few children with very serious medical conditions, generally genetic ones from birth... resulting in them being unable to digest food" https://t.co/TV8BUnpjkw https://t.co/ty05KBsytZ
— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) May 10, 2025
“How very kind of Israel to put 2.3 million Palestinians on an enforced diet to improve their obesity levels,” he added.