These Veterans Starved Themselves To Protest The War In Gaza

As food in Gaza becomes increasingly scarce, activists are pushing their bodies to the limit in solidarity.

By Emmet Fraizer, The Nation

On June 30, Mike Ferner spattered a gallon of cow’s blood over the US Mission to the UN as portraits of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance looked on from behind the glass façade. “Here, United States, have some blood!” he said as it dripped down the windows. “You like shedding it all over the world so much? There you go!”

Ferner, the former national director of Veterans for Peace, then led members and supporters in a march around the block to the Israeli consulate, where the protesters lay down in the street, blocking traffic.

The blood spattering, march, and die-in marked the end of a 40-day fast organized by Veterans for Peace to demand that Israel allow the UN to distribute full humanitarian aid to Gaza and that the US stop sending Israel weapons. Over 800 participants conducted various types of fasts in solidarity, but the core group of Veterans for Peace activists restricted themselves to 250 calories per day—at one point the average daily caloric intake in parts of the Gaza Strip, which doctors consider to be a starvation diet.

Over almost two years of genocide, Gaza has descended into famine and near-famine conditions on a semiregular cycle: people starve to death; after sufficient international outcry, Israel allows food to trickle in; the situation abates a little, until aid is cut off again. This spring, the longest total blockade yet—over 11 weeks—once more prompted warnings about the risk of famine. Over the past month, the IDF has lured starving people to outposts of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, only to gun them down. Hundreds have died.