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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 simultaneously 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 and other civic groups in a “40 Days Veterans & Allies Solidarity Fast For Gaza” campaign, beginning Thursday, May 22, 2025.
Our two urgent demands:
- Resume humanitarian aid to Gaza under UN authority
- Comprehensively halt any Canadian support for arms to 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.
- We do not encourage you to fast on your own for 40 days, recruit others you know to rotate days on 250 calories, or do a relay fast with a group.Today in northern Gaza people are forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day – less than a can of fava beans. This miniscule amount of food represents less than 12 per cent of the recommended daily 2,100 calorie intake needed per person, calculated using demographic data considering variations by age and gender.
If your health, age or work prohibits you from joining this fast, you can still support this activity 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
WHY WE FAST
As practitioners of nonviolence, we believe that our bodies must become the message when the world refuses to listen or act. 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 out of compassion and solidarity with those who are starving because the world has turned its back.
For more information and to register, visit our US affiliates webpage.
With urgency and hope for justice,
Sami Awad
Co-Director, Nonviolence International
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan
Trustee, Nonviolence International Canada
P.S. Please join a world-wide gathering with other solidarity fasters (and hopefully someone from Gaza) on Thursday, May 29, at 11am Ottawa time. Register here! All are welcome.