Reflecting On My Hunger Strike for Gaza

By: Jennifer Koonings

This is day six of my hunger strike for Gaza at the White House.

At the White House, I have gotten to speak with people all over the world about what is happening in Palestine on the American taxpayers’ dollar. To me, that is a win.

People from all over the world come to Washington DC to see the White House, and they should not forget that the current president occupying the White House is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people.

It’s been mostly positive responses from tourists and passerbys who thank me as a nurse practitioner for bringing attention to Gaza. But I have also gotten questions about my intentions. “What is the point of doing a hunger strike?” “You won’t change anything, so why bother with this?”

And I won’t argue that point: I don’t have any delusions about my solo hunger strike changing this administration’s insistence on continuing this genocide.

After all, eight months of protesting, organizing, actions and resistance for Palestine hasn’t seemed to change much of anything on the ground. The situation has only gotten more dire.

But just because the politicians aren’t listening to us doesn’t mean we should stop.

If anything, our activism for Palestine lets these war criminals know we have not forgotten about their deeds and most importantly, we have not forgotten about the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation.

There is a nightly vigil held at the White House gate for Gaza, and we are happy to be in the tourists’ photos with our signs, reminding the world about Palestine.

A man asked us yesterday to move out of the way so he can have his “memory of the White House” photo op. I responded that his “memory” of the White House should include that this President is funding and fueling a genocide and that children are literally starving to death in Gaza.

He did not have any way to respond to that.

On Day Two of my hunger strike, I had to have another sign made after my first was destroyed by a Capitol policeman. I attempted to bring my sign into the House of Representatives (it says “American nurse on hunger strike for Gaza”) and was told by Capitol police that I could not bring a sign inside. I went back outside and placed the sign behind some bushes. The policeman came running outside, trying to find where I hid my sign. He then ran down the street and went digging in the bushes looking for the sign I had hidden out of sight so that I could take it with me to the White House later in the afternoon. The policeman came storming back to his post with my sign, which he had broken into several pieces. When I asked for the sign back, he refused, saying it was now “trash.” After several unsuccessful attempts to convince the now irate police officer to give me the pieces of my sign back, I had another sign made.

This time I made the sign bigger and also printed out two pictures of babies who are starving to death in Gaza.

More healthcare workers need to stand up and speak out against the atrocities happening in Gaza. The American Medical Association still has not spoken out against the genocide. Hundreds of healthcare workers have been killed by Israeli bombs or snipers or while in imprisonment.

None of us can imagine intubating a patient who’s bleeding out, unassisted on the dirty floor. Or amputating the limb of an awake, alert and unmedicated child. Or having only acetaminophen to give to a critical patient with traumatic blast injuries. Or having to perform a hysterectomy on a young woman who just birthed her first child only because you do not have any resources to properly care for her blood loss. Or fearing for your own life and limb as bombs drop around you and even on you as you desperately try to save the continuous stream of patients arriving with fatal injuries.

The unimaginable horror of all that as your staff, your medical supplies and your strength dwindles to nothing left.

All aspects of this genocide are complete barbarity.

My hunger strike is one small part of the millions of actions that are taking place to challenge the Israeli genocide of Gaza and challenge U.S. complicity in the genocide. We all need to be doing more to end the genocide.

We will continue challenging the genocide of Gaza because we have no other choice. What’s left of our humanity is on the line.

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If you would like to support Jen, she will be outside the White House from 1pm-7pm.