Hunger Strike for Gaza at UN and in Jordan: Food as a "Heavy Burden"
"What Gandhi Says about Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage"
To me, Norman Finkelstein's talks on Gandhi are possibly his most important and may now be the most relevant. "What Gandhi Says about Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage" was a compelling talk about "How do you quicken the dead conscience into life?" And just noticing this: "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: What we can learn from Gandhi".
Hunger Strike for Gaza at UN and in Jordan: Food as a "Heavy Burden"
Jennifer Koonings is a nurse practitioner and sexual assault forensic examiner for adults and children in New York City. She was a recent participant in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
She and others in New York are beginning a hunger strike Friday across from the UN, outside the U.S. mission "demanding an end to the siege, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement in Gaza." This is being done in coordination with hunger strikers in Jordan who began a hunger strike on Nov. 1. Koonings can also connect media to hunger strikers in Jordan.
Middle East Eye reports on the 60 hunger strikers in Jordan: "A group of strikers attempted to gather inside the headquarters of the Jordanian Professional Associations Complex earlier this week but security forces forced them to leave, threatening them with arrest, several strikers told MEE." See the group's Instagram feed and actions on X.
The Jordanian hunger strikers stress that daily demonstrations and political appeals have been "suppressed and ignored." Their most immediate demand is that 500 aid trucks be allowed into northern Gaza.
One of the hunger strikers in New York is Hesen Jabr, see New York Times profile of her from May: "NYU Nurse Is Fired After Calling the Gaza War a ‘Genocide’ in Speech." Jabr received an award for her compassionate care, but was fired after she spoke against Israel's genocide at the awards ceremony.
Koonings said today: "With Israel’s deliberate blocking of aid and systemic destruction of agricultural land, famine has reached critical levels across the Gaza Strip: 96 percent of the population are facing severe food insecurity and 37 children have already died from malnutrition. ...
"This follows months of Israeli attacks on aid and healthcare workers in Gaza, Israel has killed 1,000 healthcare workers, as well as repeated raids on health facilities, in what the UN has described as a systematic 'medicide.'
"Healthcare infrastructure has been completely decimated and healthcare workers are unable to treat critical cases or even chronic diseases. There are currently no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza, and any injury can be deadly due to the complete lack of supplies or medication.
"The situation in northern Gaza is particularly alarming, where over 400,000 civilians are trapped under an Israeli siege that has seen virtually no food enter the area, relentless attacks on healthcare, and a media blackout imposed to hide the atrocities being committed.
"Yet as the Israeli siege continues to intensify, those who claim to lead in human rights and democracy are silent, aid remains blocked, and famine is devastating Gaza. For people of conscience everywhere, food has now become a heavy burden."
There is a long history of Palestinians using hunger strikes, see reports from the Electronic Intifada.
I would like to see all the Western people go on hunger strike.
Can the Americans do this?
Someone (Chomsky?) pointed out that hunger strikes work only against a country or people who have a conscience. A country that bombs hospitals, schools, refugee camps, aid workers, women and children with gusto will only delight in the bootless effort and mock the hunger strikers with the same contempt they have for the Gazans they are denying food and water.
Israel will change its ways the way a bully changes his ways: getting its nose bloodied big time.