The following statement comes from Palestinian author and journalist Asmaa al-Ghoul, who was born in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. As a journalist and activist, she has led demonstrations and been vocal in her opposition to Hamas, which has led her to family strife, imprisonment, brutal interrogations, death threats and attacks. Her memoir, A Rebel in Gaza, paints a sensory portrait of the native country she passionately loves without shying away from the harsh realities Gazans face.

DEAR FRIENDS ALL OVER THE WORLD

Together with activists and those who stand in solidarity with what is happening in Gaza we started a hunger strike campaign, asking to stop the war on Gaza. 

Our campaign is a peaceful protest activity based on an open hunger strike, which will continue until the demands of the strikers are met and the campaign’s primary goal of stopping the war on Gaza is achieved.

“Strike” here means abstaining from eating, and doing self-starvation as a form of peaceful protest and pressure for influence. The strike does not include abstaining from drinking fluids.

This action comes as an expression of being subjected to injustice and as an investment in our fragility as a force for peaceful resistance and protest against the humanitarian violations affecting the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. 

This tactic adopted by the campaign is characterized by the fact that it intensifies the feeling of our humanity and our awareness of human responsibility. It transcends our cultural and ideological divisions and differences and unites them in one collective movement. 

We find in this strike a means of addressing and negotiating with the international community, which meets our humanitarian demands to stop the war and end injustice with silence, exclusion, and neglect.

Hence, I call on all those in solidarity and free people in this world to join this campaign in protest against humanitarian violations and in a peaceful demand to stop the war and achieve human justice for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.