The Irish are well aware from their own history of the Irish Famine that famine is a political act. In fact, there many famines throughout English control of Ireland as all other crops went to the English landlords and to feed England and the British army in India. The 1845-1853 Irish Famine was by far the worst. A century before the 1845-1853 Irish Famine Jonathan Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal", in which he satirized English economists by proposing that Irish peasants, who led lives of destitution and often faced starvation, could profit by offering up their children to be fattened up and then fed to wealthy Englishmen in return for some money to feed the rest of their family. That is why they could quickly see what was happening in Gaza was another political act of famine and become the first Western nation to oppose the war and the famine. By December January every member of the Irish Parliament, whether on the right, centre or left, voted for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the famine. Having seen how famine was used repeatedly as a political act of violence in their own country, the Irish have spoken out most strongly in the West against the Israeli war in Gaza and the resulting famine.
In Irish Australian writer Thomas Keneally's book, Three Famines, Keneally compares the 1845-1853 famine, with the World War II famine in Bengal India, and the 1980s famine in Ethopia and ends up agreeing with Irish economic historian Cormac O'Grada that "Agency is more important than a food production shortfall. Mars (the god of war) is more important than Malthus (who argued that population growth would eventually produce famine). Thus famines are acts of political violence. In 1837, Ireland freed its slaves, spending 20% of its budget to do so. Of course this money went to the slaveowneers to compensate them for their loss of property; needless to say, not one cent went to the slaves for the abuse they endured or the lost labour wages. Ten years later, the English claimed they could not afford to feed the starving Irish, something that would have cost significantly less than 20% of the budget. The government's own documents show that Ireland produced enough food to feed everyone in Ireland, but the English took that under armed guard to feed England and its army in India. One quarter of the Irish starved to death and another quarter were forced to emigrate to survive, which seems to be Israel's desired goal as the famine in Gaza mounts.
Similarly, Keneally describes how famine in Ethiopia was also the result of ideological conflict, much more than food shortfall. The fact that any response to feeding starving Ethiopians took so long to occur, was in part a response of the West to a 'African problem'. Kenally in a last chapter goes on goes on discuss numerous other famines, including those in the Russian famines in 1921-22 during the civil war, Ukraine in the 1930s, Malawi in 1949-50, Cambodia in the 1970s, North Korea in the 1990s, illustrating in each case how these were political acts of violence. The famine in Gaza that is now occurring is also a political act of violence.
During World War II, although England had the means to ship enough to feed to feed Bengalis in India, Churchill decided it was more important to focus on the war effort, leaving millions to starve to death in India. Since this inconvenient truth did not show England in a good light, this is one of the few large famines that is barely known outside of India. Copying the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that fought for and won Irish independence a couple of generations after the famine, the Indian Republican Army also fought for independence in part because of the Indian famine in WWII. While the Indian Republican Army failed and its leaders were executed as allies of Japan in WWII, it still had an effect on Indian history. The Imperial Indian army, mostly composed of Indians under English control, was ready to go into open rebellion in 1947, forcing England to give India independence one year earlier than had been planned. (https://www.indianetzone.com/60/indian_republican_army.htm) "Independence leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Irish Prime Minister Éamon de Valera were said to be in touch with each other" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–Ireland_relations), despite Nehru being an advocate of non-violence and a leading disciple of Ghandi.