Rally for Gaza: May All be Fed!

As part of our "Peace, Not Famine" rolling hunger strike, nearly three dozen of us gathered on April 5 outside CoMo City Hall to rally in support of adequate food and other necessities being provided to the desperate people of Gaza. We also called for a lasting ceasefire, the release of hostages and political prisoners, and a halt to U.S. military exports to Israel. 

We had three speakers at the rally. The first was Palestinian-American activist, humanitarian aid worker and adjunct professor, Rasha Abousalem. Below you will find the text of her talk at the Rally for Gaza, May All be Fed peace gathering. We will also be posting soon the texts of the other two speakers.

Please note that all are invited to join in our daily peace vigils which are held from 12:15-12:45 p.m. by the Keyhole sculpture outside City Hall. We vigil for peace seven days a week.

I am the child of Palestinian refugees from the original 1948 Nakba (or "catastrophe" in Arabic). My father, one of the 700,000 Palestinians expelled or forced to flee, was only 8 years old when his family was violently forced out of their home in Haifa, and my mother's family was expelled from their ancestral land in Nazareth.

I was privileged to be raised in the US, as my parents brought their 4 young children to a new country and culture in the hopes that they could live safely and give us the opportunities they were robbed of. But rather than be able to celebrate my beautiful heritage through our food, music, embroidery, and diverse history... my entire existence as a Palestinian is instead politicized, vilified, dehumanized, and questioned. Simply for stating, "My heritage is Palestinian," I am no longer seen as American (or "American" enough). I am looked at suspiciously and accused of being hateful and violent, and that the Palestinian existence is "complicated." For decades, Palestinian history has been erased, appropriated, and taken over by Zionist propaganda. Anti-Palestinian sentiment and rhetoric is so normalized and acceptable that everything from its flag to a kufiyah or even simply saying the word "Palestine" is deemed extremist, dangerous, and at best, makes people feel uncomfortable. 

For the first time in history, a genocide is being live streamed by the very population that is being targeted. Horrific scenes of wide-scale devastation, slaughter, and starvation flood our screens. Israeli military forces, armed by the US, have killed more than 32,800 in Gaza (as of April 2nd), including over 13,000 children. 

More than a million Palestinians will face famine in the coming weeks, as Palestinians have resorted to eating grass and animal-feed in a desperate attempt to ward off starvation. Gaza is now the most severe humanitarian crisis in modern history and has turned into a 21^stcentury concentration camp. Almost 30 people have been starved to death, with 27 of those being children. But we need to be clear that although the people in Gaza indeed are starving, it is not due to natural or uncontrollable causes...rather, the people of Gaza are being intentionally deprived of the most basic human right to food and water...as Gaza-- besides being bombed-- is literally being starved, dehydrated and diseased to death by Israeli officials.

Since WWII, the international community has prohibited acts of apartheid, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. After the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust, the world said "never again." Today, the same leaders and nations that have developed these international laws of moral conduct are the very same ones ignoring them, as they passively stand by and watch Israel blatantly and very publicly disregard international law after international law on a massive scale.

As heavy bombardments continue in Gaza, aid workers and even Israeli hostages have not been spared from the fury of the Israeli military. This most recent attack on the WCK aid workers, who just prior to being murdered by the Israeli military were part of a team that was distributing food, has infuriated humanitarians like myself...except our outrage falls on deaf ears, blind eyes, and sealed hearts.

Decades from now, when future generations study not just this genocide, but the apartheid as well, they will discuss how the world failed to stop yet another atrocity. They will read accounts of the horrors that took place in Gaza and think to themselves exactly what so many of us think now about past horrific events – "I would have said something!"..."I would have been outraged!"...."I would have..."..."I would have..."...."I would have...."

Instead, what so many will end up saying is, "I should have taken a stand...I should have been more publicly outspoken...I should have done this or I should have...I should have...I should have...I should have."

But here we all are today, taking a stand together. Here we are today, people of different faiths, races, ethnicities and backgrounds...coming together to stand for humanity. Do not feel defeated or tired...do not feel like your voice is too small. The people of Gaza are depending on each and every single one of us to be their voice. They do not have a choice, but we do. And every day we can choose to be on the right side of history. Every day we can choose to be firm in our stance...or we can choose to stay silent and pretend that we have no say in the matter.

Thank you, friends, for choosing to fight the good cause...for taking a stand with us not just today, but everyday. Thank you from my friends in Gaza and the West Bank who everyday cling onto a little bit of hope...because as long as they have hope, they have the will to survive....because the act of existence, is the simplest and most powerful form of resistance. And today, we are existing here, now, all together in resistance against brutality. Thank you all again.

May All be Fed

When is the last time you went a full day without eating? Thankfully, for most of us here in Missouri it’s a rare occurrence. Fasting, for us, if done at all, is most likely to be part of a religious ritual or something believed to have health benefits, not the result of a shortage of food.

A group of more than 60 of us, however, have signed up with Mid-Missouri Peaceworks to participate in “Peace, Not Famine,” a rolling hunger strike, to call attention to the horrific situation facing 2.2 million people in Gaza. Those participating in the fasting are doing so one day each week. My day is Saturday.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have already killed more than 30,000 noncombatant civilians, the majority of them women or children, and injured many tens of thousands more. While most of these casualties have been due to aerial bombardment or artillery fire, a growing concern is mass starvation, due to the siege of the enclave imposed by the Israelis. They have been severely limiting the flow of needed food, water, medicine and fuel.

A report from the World Health Organization states: “An unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of malnutrition.” WHO goes on to document the heightened incidence of many ailments attributed the lack of food, medicines and basic sanitation. Infants are the most susceptible, due in part to the fact that many mothers are unable to produce sufficient breast milk and infant formula is generally unavailable.

Israel’s ability to cause such loss of life and limb is due, in no small part, to U.S. backing. It is our government that supplies much of their arms. And it’s the U.S. veto at the UN Security Council that has prevented any enforceable resolutions being passed that would sanction Israel for its war crimes.

Of late, the Biden administration, politically pressured, has been calling on the Israelis to allow more food and other necessities to be delivered to the Gazan people, but the reality falls short of the rhetoric.

A few weeks ago the media reported the U.S. was dropping Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) in by plane. It seemed like a cause for celebration until the details came out. They were delivering 38,000 MREs, which might, at first blush, sound like a lot. But there are 2.2 million Gazan mouths to feed. That means 6.6 million meals a day are needed and these 38 thousand meals provide the food needed to feed just over one-half of one percent of the population for one day. Basically, a drop in the bucket.

Shortly thereafter, at President Biden's State of the Union speech, he announced a more ambitious initiative; having the U.S. military install a temporary pier so ships can bring needed food in by sea. We don’t know how much can be delivered this way, but the experts are saying it will take at least two months to install the facility, a long time to wait when one is starving.

More to the point, there is no good reason sufficient food can’t be delivered by truck and distributed to the population throughout Gaza. The only real impediment is Israel’s unwillingness to allow the food in. And, who is arming Israel? Who has the leverage to get Netanyahu to relent on this? That’s right, it’s our government and thus it is urgent that we let them know we insist on a ceasefire now.

The “Peace, Not Famine” rolling hunger strike is ongoing with participants picking one day a week to fast. We are also holding a daily vigil calling for letting Gaza live at the Keyhole outside City Hall from 12:15-12:45 seven days a week. All are invited to join us, whenever they can, whether fasting or not. It’s really up to us—people of conscience across the country—to create the pressure needed to end this senseless, lethal conflict. We urge you to make your voice heard.

By Mark Haim, Director, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks

Dear President Biden--Peaceworks Calls for Transforming U.S. Foreign & Military Policy.

 

Peaceworks sent the following letter to the White House on Feb. 3, 2024. We urge you to join us in speaking out. Below the letter you will find a link that allows you to send your message to the President.

Dear President Biden,

We, the American people, have had enough of war and militarism.

There is no good reason for our country to be spending as much on our military as the next ten biggest spenders combined, with most of those ten being U.S. allies.

There is no good reason for U.S. troops to be in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar or anywhere else in the region.

We are deeply concerned that the Israel-Palestine conflict is morphing into a wider regional conflict and the action taken yesterday to attack 85 targets in Iraq and Syria only heightens tensions and makes such a war more likely.

We call upon you to use our country’s leverage to press for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, the release of hostages, the provision of adequate humanitarian relief and the suspension of military transfers to Israel.

We believe it is in the interest of our nation and world peace to pursue an agenda that focuses on negotiations to end ongoing conflicts and further negotiations to pursue mutual, verifiable, incremental disarmament. This, along with the re-direction of funds currently being squandered on wars and militarism, to fund instead human and environmental needs, are necessary ingredients in the creation of a peaceful future for our children and grandchildren in this and in all nations around the world.

I am writing on behalf of the approximately 500 member households in Mid-Missouri Peaceworks.

Thank you for considering our concerns.

All the best,
Mark Haim
Director, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks

To send your message to the White House, please CLICK HERE