Arab communal leaders launch 3-day hunger strike against Gaza starvation, reject new aid policy as PR stunt

Arab lawmakers and community leaders hold a press conference in Jaffa marking the end of the first day of a three-day hunger strike over the starvation in Gaza.

The strike is part of a burgeoning anti-war campaign in the Arab community that included a 10,000-strong demonstration in Sakhnin on Friday. The community leaders are also planning a demonstration outside the US Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Responding to a question from The Times of Israel, Mohammad Barakeh, head of the High Follow-up Committee, an umbrella organization representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, says the strike was decided upon weeks ago, and indicates that the organizers were unimpressed by Israel’s announcement last night that it would increase the flow of aid into Gaza.

According to Barakeh, the aid entering Gaza under the new Israeli measures is not nearly enough to feed the Strip’s population.

“This is not an operation to save lives,” he says. “This is is a public relations operation that follows international pressure and the horrifying pictures that are circulating in the world.” He also says the Follow-up Committee has for months had plans in place to send and distribute aid, and accuses Israeli authorities of refusing the scheme.

Among the participants in the press conference are lawmakers Mansour Abbas, Ahmed Tibi and Aida Touma-Saliman — respectively of the three Arab parties currently represented in the Knesset, Ra’am, Ta’al and Hadash — as well as Sami Abu Shehadeh and Sakhnin Mayor Mazen Ghanayim, leading members of the Balad party. Also in attendance is Amos Goldberg, a Hebrew University Holocaust scholar who has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. With the exception of Goldberg, who speaks only in Hebrew, and Ghanayim, who speaks only in Arabic, the speakers deliver their statements in both languages.

Speakers call for an end to the war and immediate release of the hostages. They also accuse Israeli media and Zionist political parties of whitewashing the situation in Gaza, and praise French President Emmanuel Macron for his decision to recognize Palestinian statehood in September.

“I’m waiting for Britain to do the same, because Britain’s historic and moral debt is greater than France’s,” says Tibi. He also gives special thanks to Jewish Israelis who attended the Sakhnin demonstration.

Goldberg, the only Jewish speaker at the conference, says: “We are here in the name of Jewish history, and Jewish history commands us, ‘You shall not stand by the blood of your fellow.'”