Washington, DC – State lawmakers and Palestinian rights supporters, joined by actor and progressive advocate Cynthia Nixon, have launched a five-day starvation strike exterior the White Home to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
At a information convention on Monday, the activists decried United States President Joe Biden’s position in supporting the Israeli offensive in Gaza and referred to as for a direct finish to the preventing.
The starvation strike provides to the rising demand for a ceasefire from activists, artists and politicians, in addition to employees members working within the US authorities. However Biden has thus far resisted such calls, voicing unwavering assist for Israel.
Biden has additionally pledged greater than $14bn in further US assist to Israel — funds that advocates say are contributing to the Israeli violence.
The protesters at Monday’s occasion confused that public opinion polls present that almost all Individuals again a ceasefire. Additionally they underscored the dimensions of the destruction in Gaza, the place greater than 14,800 Palestinians have died. United Nations consultants have warned that the battle places Palestinians “at grave threat of genocide“.
“What number of extra Palestinians have to be killed earlier than you name for a ceasefire, President Biden? We can not wait any longer,” mentioned Iman Abid, an organiser with the US Marketing campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
Israel and Hamas declared a four-day truce within the battle final week, and on Monday, officers introduced the pause in preventing would proceed for 2 further days, to permit for the discharge of extra Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners.
The hunger-strikers mentioned that the continued pause demonstrates that diplomacy — not bombs — can resolve the disaster in Gaza.
Israeli leaders, nevertheless, have recommended that they will resume the bombing with extra depth as soon as the truce expires. They’ve additionally warned residents from northern Gaza towards returning to their houses.
“The world north of the Gaza Strip is a fight zone, and it’s forbidden to remain there,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee mentioned final week.
This week’s starvation strike in Washington, DC, is organised by Palestine solidarity advocates, progressive Jewish teams in addition to Arab and Palestinian-American organisations.
Right here’s what a few of the hunger-strikers on the White Home needed to say:
As we speak we start a starvation strike in entrance of the White Home demanding a everlasting ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/BChpnSJX7z
— Sumaya Awad (@sumayaawad) November 27, 2023
Nixon: ‘By no means once more’ means by no means once more – for anybody
Finest identified for her work within the TV sequence Intercourse and the Metropolis and her run within the 2018 New York governor’s race, Nixon used her speech at Monday’s occasion to spotlight the carnage in Gaza, together with the killings of dozens of journalists and UN employees in addition to the destruction of whole neighbourhoods.
“Our president’s seeming disregard for the unbelievable human toll Israel’s far-right authorities is exacting on harmless civilians doesn’t remotely replicate the need of the overwhelming majority of Individuals,” she mentioned.
“And I want to make a private plea to a president — who has himself skilled such devastating private loss — to attach with that empathy for which he’s so well-known and to take a look at the youngsters of Gaza and picture that they have been his kids.
“We implore him that this present ceasefire should proceed, and we should construct off it to start to barter a extra everlasting peace. We can not preserve letting American tax {dollars} assist and abet the killing and hunger of tens of millions of Palestinians. ‘By no means once more’ means by no means once more — for anybody.”
Delaware lawmaker Madinah Wilson-Anton: Majority of Individuals need ceasefire
Wilson-Anton, a Muslim American legislator from Biden’s house state of Delaware, mentioned that whereas she is anxious about abstaining from meals for a number of days, her ideas are with the folks of Gaza who’re experiencing a bloodbath with no selection or finish in sight.
“Nearly all of Individuals are for a everlasting ceasefire. And it’s unlucky that our president and our congressional members will not be being attentive to what’s necessary to Delawareans and Individuals from all states,” Wilson-Anton, a Democrat, mentioned.
“And so I’m hoping that, this week, we’ll achieve success in gaining the ear of our president and of our congressional members, to allow them to truly begin to use their privilege and place to barter a ceasefire that’s lasting.”
New York State Consultant Zohran Mamdani: Negotiations, not battle, freed captives
Mamdani hailed the discharge of Israelis held by Hamas and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel through the truce.
“We’re starvation putting for a world the place everyone seems to be with their household. And it’s a world that may solely be made doable via a ceasefire. It isn’t battle that introduced us these reunifications. It’s negotiations; it’s a cessation [of hostilities],” he mentioned.
“We hunger-strike not as a result of we wish to. We hunger-strike as a result of we have now been pressured by this president and by our authorities’s international coverage. We hunger-strike as a result of Palestinians have been doubted in life and demise, and their expertise has been erased.”
Activist Rana Abdelhamid: Dehumanising rhetoric normalises Palestinian deaths
Abdelhamid, a New York organiser, linked the killing of Palestinians in Gaza to an increase in prejudice towards Arabs and Muslims within the US. She pointed to Saturday’s capturing of three Palestinian college students in a suspected hate crime for instance.
“As somebody who has been organising towards hate-based violence throughout this nation, I’m absolutely conscious that the violence and the anti-Palestinian rhetoric that we’re seeing overseas can be impacting us right here in the US. These two issues are inextricably linked,” Abdelhamid mentioned.
“When our elected [officials] and our legislators and our representatives are constantly dehumanising Palestinian folks, are normalising Palestinian deaths, we get what we received two days in the past. We get three Palestinian college students in Vermont being shot for merely carrying a keffiyeh, for merely talking Arabic.”
Palestinian-American author and advocate Sumaya Awad: The US is complicit
Awad confused that the US is “complicit” within the ongoing violence towards Palestinians. She added that the battle additionally has home ramifications within the US.
“I’m Palestinian and I’m a New Yorker. I’m an American and I’m a mom of a 16-month-old, and I’m on starvation strike as an example to our authorities only a sliver, a fraction of what Palestinians are enduring in Gaza each single day,” Awad mentioned.
“I’m on starvation strike to demand a everlasting ceasefire and to say that we’ll proceed to strain our authorities in each method doable to get that everlasting ceasefire as a result of we’re not simply silent observers. We’re complicit in what is occurring in Palestine.
“We’re on starvation strike as a result of what’s occurring in Gaza just isn’t one thing distant that we have now nothing to do with. It has actual impacts on our lives right here within the US.”
