Sam Stein
Organizers hold a banner for the People’s Hunger Strike for Gaza, which launched in Boston earlier this month.
On September 4, the People’s Hunger Strike for Gaza (PHS) held its launch event outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in downtown Boston. The group is beginning a campaign during which about fifty activists will each commit to fasting for at least one week, beginning at different times throughout the campaign, aiming to pressure elected officials to limit aid to Israel during its genocide and bombardment of Gaza. The hunger strike campaign formed in response to the mass starvation inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza by Israel. According to campaign leaders who spoke to The Progressive, the campaign is also a response to a recent call from Global Movement to Gaza USA for international activists to join a campaign started by hunger strikers in Ramallah, a city in the West Bank.
“I am fasting because I want the people in Gaza to know that they are not forgotten,” Mahmoud Abu Hazeem, a hunger striker in the campaign, tells The Progressive. “They deserve everything we take for granted, and we will not enjoy our lives until they are safe and sound.”
Massachusetts Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have both made statements condemning President Donald Trump’s actions supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and have supported bills limiting U.S. military aid to Israel. Warren also spoke out against a plan to give $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-backed non-governmental organization that allegedly serves to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza, but has been accused of firing at aid seekers.
This makes them both strong targets for Massachusetts voters to take further action against U.S. support for Israel, and PHS is calling on Warren and Markey to introduce a Senate version of the Block the Bombs Act, a bill introduced in May by U.S. Representatives Delia Ramirez (Democrat of Illinois), Sara Jacobs (Democrat of California), Pramila Jayapal (Democrat of Washington), and Mark Pocan (Democrat of Wisconsin), along with eighteen initial co-sponsors. According to the Block the Bombs website, the bill would block the federal government from providing Israel with certain high impact weaponry such as MK-80 series bombs and tank and artillery ammunition.
Sam Stein
Activists are using the hunger strike to pressure lawmakers to block U.S. military aid to Israel.
Twenty-three additional members of Congress have co-sponsored the bill since it was introduced, and PHS is also calling on U.S. Representative Katherine Clark, current Democratic Party Whip, to co-sponsor. The bill is also sponsored by dozens of major advocacy organizations, including Amnesty International USA, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Human Rights Watch, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.
The PHS campaign is primarily led by health care workers speaking out against the man-made famine in Gaza. The launch was co-sponsored by multiple local Boston activist groups including Jewish Voice for Peace Boston and Massachusetts Peace Action, as well as Doctors Against Genocide.
During the event, which featured speeches from hunger strikers and other demonstrators, activists expressed different reasons for deciding to participate, including some whose identities as Palestinian Americans motivated them.
“I decided to fast to stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters in Palestinian,” Omama Marzuq tells The Progressive. “As a Palestinian, I felt like I was not doing enough; utilizing my body was a last resort to let my elected officials know that if anything happens to me, like hospitalization or death, it’s due to them being complicit in the genocide in Gaza, Palestine, against my people.”
Another activist, Jeannie Connerney, said in her speech, “I am also an Irish citizen. My ancestors experienced hunger at the hands of an occupying force, and nobody should ever experience that again.”
Throughout the duration of the campaign, protesters will join daily demonstrations to add pressure and support the hunger strikers, who plan to rally outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building every weekday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., reiterating the goals of the campaign. The rallies will have volunteer medical staff on site to run check-ups on strikers, monitoring their weight loss, blood pressure, and other vitals to ensure that it is safe for them to continue fasting. PHS has laid out internal guidelines shown to The Progressive regarding rest, fluids, and nutrients for the hunger strikers, who are abstaining from eating all solid foods but will consume water and electrolytes throughout their fasts.
Since October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and siege of Gaza, there has been a surge of Palestinian solidarity protests in the United States. Many of these protests have centered on the United States’s significant military aid to Israel, including PHS, whose primary goal is limiting aid to Israel through the Block the Bombs Act. Since the current genocidal military campaign began, support from people in the United States for Israel’s actions in Gaza has steadily declined, particularly among Democratic voters.
While many will see a hunger strike as a drastic measure, and may worry about the health of those participating, striker Raneem, who requested to omit his last name, hopes this will generate more press around the conditions in Gaza and help people in the United States to conceptualize the mass starvation. “For everyone who thinks about me and my well-being during this time,” he says, “I hope they can take that and shift their attention, their concerns, and their worries to what is unfolding in Gaza.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated to omit the anticipated duration of the campaign.