By Jeannie Connerney
The Peoples Hunger Strike began in Boston at the beginning of September in response to a group of Palestinians calling for an international hunger strike in solidarity with Gaza and as a means of escalating political pressure to end the genocide. The strike kicked off with a rally and press conference on September 7 in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, featuring renowned authority on famine Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Thirty-five people, including local physicians, healthcare workers, and community members, have registered to fast sequentially, and the strike has continued since September 4. An initial interview and questionnaire determined whether volunteers could safely participate, and all strikers receive medical and psychological support, while ingesting only water, electrolytes, and salt during their 7-day fasts.
The group has three demands: Stop Israel’s murder and starvation of Palestinians, allow food and medical care to reach the people of Gaza, and free healthcare workers who have been arbitrarily detained by Israel. “The most immediate lever that we have” explained Boston physician, Dr. Miriam Komaromy on her fifth day of hunger strike, “is to stop U.S. arms sales to Israel.”
Demonstrating every weekday afternoon outside the JFK Federal Building in Boston, hunger strikers and supporters hold signs and chant in order to specify their demands to Massachusetts politicians: that House Minority Whip, Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA-5) co-sponsor the Block the Bombs bill, and that Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Joe Markey (D-MA) “lead, not follow” and introduce a similar bill in the Senate.
Introduced in May by Congressional representatives Delia Ramirez (D-IL-3), Sara Jacobs (D-CA-51) Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-7), and Mark Pocan (D-WI-2), H.R.3565 would prevent the United States from delivering major weapons to Israel used in the mass killing of Palestinians. As of September 20, the bill has fifty co-sponsors, including Massachusetts representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA-2) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7). On September 20 the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) endorsed the bill, marking the first time any major congressional caucus has formally voiced support for legislation aimed at cutting US funding for the Israeli destruction of Gaza. Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced plans to sell another $6 billion worth of weapons to Israel.
The People’s Hunger Strike holds regular events and recently organized a presentation in West Roxbury featuring Community Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Malak Rafia, and Canadian primary care physician, public health practitioner, and activist Dr. Yipeng Ge, who was ejected from his residency training due to his advocacy for Palestine.
Dr. Ge was also the headline speaker at “The People’s Prescription” rally in Copley Square on September 14, where he described his time working in Gaza last year and paid tribute to both his colleagues and the more than 1,800 healthcare workers killed there during the past two years. “I don’t know if my Palestinian healthcare colleagues that I worked with are still alive to this day,” he told the crowd, “Because thousands have been either murdered, detained, or thrown illegally in Israeli torture camps, and they remain there.”
The rally also featured a make-shift medical tent on the outside of which the public posted hand-written “prescriptions” to end the genocide, and it ended with a traditional Palestinian dabke dancing lesson.
Family physician and hunger striker Dr. Diane Ladd says she is outraged that the US medical establishment has repeatedly refused to take an ethical stance. In a statement posted on the group’s website, she describes the fight for survival in Gaza as “a daily, if not hour by hour, or even minute to minute struggle.”
Dr. Ladd describes the medical conditions suffered by Gazan children due to starvation and explains: “I’m hunger striking because our tax dollars should never ever be used to intentionally inflict this on any child anywhere…Our strike is a collective call for urgent action. Lift all restrictions on aid into Gaza and stop arming Israel now!”
Since October 7, 2023 the known death toll due to starvation in Gaza stands at 440 people, including 147 children. At least 2,500 people have been killed seeking food in designated distribution areas, where over 18,000 have been wounded. The total death toll has surpassed 65,000 with at least 166,000 injured. All numbers are considered vast undercounts, due to missing bodies and unregistered deaths.
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Jeannie Connerney is a member of MAPA; Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment; Pax Christi; and Irish-Americans for Palestine, Boston.
