Washington, D.C. – State lawmakers and Palestinian rights advocates, along with actress and progressive lawyer Cynthia Nixon, have begun a five-day hunger strike outside the White House to demand a hunger strike Gaza ceasefire.

At a news conference on Monday, activists condemned US President Joe Biden’s role in supporting Israel’s offensive in Gaza and called for an immediate end to the fighting.

The hunger strike contributes to this growing need for a ceasefire from activists, artists and politicians as well as employees who work in the U.S. government. But Biden has so far resisted such calls and expressed his unwavering support for Israel.

Biden has also pledged more than $14 billion in additional U.S. aid to Israel — money that advocates say contributes to Israeli violence.

Protesters at Monday’s event stressed that public opinion polls show that most Americans support a ceasefire. They also underlined the extent of the destruction in Gaza, where more than 14,800 Palestinians have died. United Nations experts have warned that the conflict is affecting the Palestinians “in great danger of genocide“.

“How many more Palestinians must be killed before you call for a ceasefire, President Biden? We cannot wait any longer,” said Iman Abid, organizer of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).

Israel and Hamas declared a four-day ceasefire in the conflict last week, and on Monday officials announced the pause in fighting would continue for two more days to allow for the release of more Israeli and Palestinian prisoners.

The hunger strikers said the ongoing pause shows that diplomacy – not bombs – can solve the crisis in Gaza.

However, Israeli leaders have suggested so to be continued The bombing will intensify once the ceasefire expires. They have also warned residents from the northern Gaza Strip not to return to their homes.

“The area north of the Gaza Strip is a combat zone and it is forbidden to stay there,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said last week.

This week’s hunger strike in Washington, DC is organized by Palestine solidarity advocates, progressive Jewish groups, and Arab and Palestinian American organizations.

Here’s what some of the White House hunger strikers had to say:

Today we begin a hunger strike in front of the White House demanding a permanent ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/BChpnSJX7z

— Sumaya Awad (@sumayaawad) November 27, 2023

Nixon: “Never again” means never again – for anyone

Nixon is best known for her work on the television series “Sex and the City” and her run for the 2018 New York gubernatorial election. In her speech at the event on Monday, she drew attention to the carnage in Gaza, which included the killing of dozens of journalists and UN staff, as well as the destruction of entire districts.

“Our president’s apparent disregard for Israel’s incredible death toll right-wing extremist government “The demands on innocent civilians do not remotely reflect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans,” she said.

“And I would like to make a personal appeal to a president – ​​who himself has had such devastating experiences personal loss – to connect with the empathy he is so known for and to look at the children of Gaza and imagine that they were his children.

“We implore him that this current ceasefire must continue and that we must build on it to begin negotiating a more lasting peace. We cannot continue to allow American tax dollars to support the killing and starvation of millions of Palestinians. “Never again” means never again – for anyone.”

Delaware Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton: The majority of Americans want a ceasefire

Wilson-Anton, a Muslim American lawmaker from Biden’s home state of Delaware, said that while she was worried about going without food for several days, her thoughts were with the people of Gaza who are experiencing a massacre without an election or there is an end in sight.

“The majority of American are in favor of a permanent ceasefire. And it is unfortunate that our president and our members of Congress are not addressing what is important to Delawareans and Americans in every state,” said Wilson-Anton, a Democrat.

“And that’s why I hope that this week we can get the ear of our president and our members of Congress so that they can actually begin to use their privilege and position to negotiate a permanent ceasefire.”

Zohran Mamdani, New York State Representative: Negotiations, not war, freed prisoners

Mamdani welcomed the release of Israelis held by Hamas and Palestinians detained by Israel during the ceasefire.

“We are on hunger strike for a world where everyone is with their family. And it is a world that can only be made possible through a ceasefire. It wasn’t the war that gave us these reunions. It’s negotiations; it is a cessation [of hostilities],” he said.

“We are not striking because we want to. We are on hunger strike because we were forced to do so by this president and our administration’s foreign policy. We are on hunger strike because the Palestinians were doubted in life and death, and their experience has been erased.”

Activist Rana Abdelhamid: Dehumanizing rhetoric normalizes Palestinian deaths

Abdelhamid, a New York organizer, linked the killing of Palestinians in Gaza to a rise in prejudice against Arabs and Muslims in the United States. She referred to the shooting of three people on Saturday Palestinian students in an alleged hate crime as an example.

“As someone who organizes against hate-based violence across the country, I am fully aware that the violence and anti-Palestinian rhetoric we see abroad also affects us here in the United States. These two things are inextricably linked,” Abdelhamid said.

“When we were elected [officials] and our politicians and our representatives constantly dehumanize the Palestinian people, normalize Palestinian deaths, we get what we got two days ago. Three Palestinian students are simply shot dead in Vermont wears a keffiyehbecause I simply speak Arabic.”

Palestinian-American writer and lawyer Sumaya Awad: The US is complicit

Awad stressed that the US is “complicit” in the ongoing violence against Palestinians. She added that the conflict was also like that domestic effects in the USA.

“I am Palestinian and New Yorker. “I am an American and the mother of a 16-month-old child, and I am on hunger strike to show our government just a fraction of what Palestinians endure every day in Gaza,” Awad said.

“I am on hunger strike to demand a permanent ceasefire and to say that we will continue to pressure our government in every way possible to achieve this permanent ceasefire, because we are not just silent observers. We are complicit in what is happening in Palestine.

“We are on hunger strike because what is happening in Gaza is not something far away that we have nothing to do with. It has a real impact on our lives here in the United States.”