Sami Awad, Nonviolence International, May 20, 2025

Imagine surviving on just 250 calories daily and not knowing if you will even have that amount tomorrow. That’s the harsh reality for most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip right now. This is not by choice, but by an intentional calculated blockade. Weaponizing food and starving people into submission or death is a slow, calculated method of genocide, designed to break the human spirit through prolonged agony, to suffocate life one calorie at a time. This is not collateral damage; it deliberately targets an entire population’s right to survive.  

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic proportions. Gaza is being starved and bombed—its homes, hospitals, and infrastructure shattered—while much of the world remains silent. When words fail, our bodies must speak.

OUR RESPONSE: 40 DAYS SOLIDARITY FAST FOR GAZA

Nonviolence International invites you to join us — alongside Veterans For Peace, Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), and other allies—in the “40 Days and Escalate: Veterans & Allies Solidarity Fast For Gaza” campaign, beginning Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Our two urgent demands:

1. Resume humanitarian aid to Gaza under UN authority
2. Stop arming Israel NOW

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

Please join the solidarity fast from May 22nd until June 30th.

• Fast at least 1 day with a 250-calorie-per-day regimen—mirroring the caloric intake of many Gazans under the ongoing blockade. 

• If you cannot fast for 40 days, please recruit someone to take your place in a chain (or relay) fast. Use this relay to organize a community to prepare for future action.

If you cannot fast, you can still support this movement by:

• Donating to humanitarian relief for Gaza
• Contacting your elected officials
• Spreading the message on social media
• Organizing or attending awareness events in your area

ESCALATION PLAN

If our demands are not met by the end of the 40 days, we will engage in coordinated nonviolent direct actions in New York City, Washington, D.C., and other communities across the world.

WHY WE FAST

As practitioners of nonviolence, we believe that our bodies must become the message when the world refuses to listen. Fasting has long been a powerful act of resistance—from Gandhi to Cesar Chavez to the hunger strikers of Northern Ireland. We fast not only in protest but also in love and solidarity with those who are starving because the world has turned its back.

For more information and to register, visit our webpage.

With urgency and hope for justice,

Sami Awad
Co-Director, Nonviolence International

P.S. Please join a world-wide gathering with other solidarity fasters (and hopefully someone from Gaza) on Thursday, May 29, at 11am NY time. Register here! All are welcome.

Nonviolence International
https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/