Fasting as an act of solidarity has a deep history, including in response to the atrocities in Gaza. Fast Against Starvation builds upon this active intervention. We are a coalition of groups and individuals who wish to express our compassion for the suffering people of Gaza. We plea that the violence and cruelty against civilians needs to end. Our petition goes to the Israeli government which could end the horror. Our petition goes to the international community to expedite food and medical aid and facilitate a path to peace, reconciliation and security in the region. 

We come from different cultural and political affiliations, but we are united in our conviction that the violent conflicts that have so ravaged the lives of people in the Middle East must end. 

The statement we are making here by fasting against starvation is an act that proclaims our shared conviction. Each of us also continues to engage in whatever additional actions we consider appropriate to help achieve peace in Israel-Palestine.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

At the heart of this initiative is a commitment to reconciliation - not as passive agreement to end conflict, but as a courageous choice. Beyond the immediate demand to end the violence, and calling for much more than weaker notions of harmony and tolerance, reconciliation requires ongoing listening and talking across the differences that continue to distinguish us. These continuing differences include, but are not limited to, those of culture, race, religion, politics, nationality, age and gender.

We are people of many convictions. What binds us is not our uniformity but our recognition of and respect for these differences. What binds us is our mutual responsibility for each other, and our commitment to the principles that cruelty and collective punishment cannot be justified by any cause, that children should be protected, and that when one person is starving we are all damaged.

Fast Against Starvation is a space of ethical witness. It is a space of protest but also an opening to dialogue. To fast is to speak with our bodies. It is to share deep experiences and mutual commitment. To join this fast is to join a wider effort — to connect, to seek the threads of understanding, and to take action in stopping the atrocities.

We emphasise that fasting against starvation does not substitute for other actions: for public protests, for lobbying of governments, for petitions and community agitation, for engaging in vigorous and sometimes fraught arguments and debates. Rather, we see it as an enabler of such actions. By helping to keep open the shared space through which the opposing passions can be negotiated, and better and more enduring outcomes can be achieved.