Norwood resident, Jarrett Murphy, a pediatric ER nurse who is also the former editor of City Limits, is participating in the The Veterans for Peace / FOSNA, 40-day solidarity fast for Gaza, which ends Monday, June 30.

 

As reported, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), people in Gaza are starving, sick, and dying as an aide and food blockade by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues amid the ongoing war in the region.

 

“The Veterans for Peace/FOSNA 40-day solidarity fast for Gaza ends Monday,” said Murphy who, as reported, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, opted for a career change from journalism to the health sector. “The ‘relay fast’ I’m in has only 5 people, so most folks have done multiple 5-day shifts [meaning some were fasting amid the recent temperature spike of 100+ degrees]. I only did one such shift, so am going hungry today and tomorrow,” he added on Saturday, June 28.

 

Murphy continued, “This is a very brief window but I’m trying to be more precise this time about the 250-calorie limit, rather than just sticking to liquids. A cup of coffee and a cup of tea already have me over 60 cal. I’m not looking forward to tonight’s overnight shift with an empty stomach. But I came into today overfed and in control. Along with the families they treat, Palestinian nurses and doctors have [been] doing it for months and months, and they don’t get a break come Sunday.”

 

Murphy continued, “The Israeli-Iran war drew attention away from the disaster in Gaza. But the crisis continues there, especially the hunger emergency. It is common to say that cruel U.S. conduct in the Middle East will come back to hurt us in the form of new generations of terrorists. I can’t say that the Gaza famine will lead to future American deaths or injuries in that way. I can say that our conscience is already being very badly injured.”

 

He concluded, “Call or email your member of Congress. This can end. We can end it.”

 

On Monday, Murphy added, “The Irish Hunger Memorial on Vesey Street lists the places and dates of dozens of famines around the world. Many were caused or worsened by deliberate policy. All of them left a large body count and a larger wound in the human spirit: guilt in the perpetrators and bystanders, shame among the victims.”

 

 

As reported, the latest IDF bombing campaign and resulting blockade in Gaza follows the Oct. 7th 2023 terrorist attack in Southern Israel by Hamas during which, according to the U.S. State department, 1,200 civilians were murdered, including more than 40 American citizens, others were raped, and 251 more people were taken hostage, including 12 Americans. Some have since been released, some killed, while others are still being held captive.

 

AP reported on June 24 that 56,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023 and thousands more are missing or injured. Meanwhile, an extract from a May 12th WHO article reads, “The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade. The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.”

 

On Sunday, June 8, a boat sailing in international waters called the Madleen, which was carrying needed food to Gaza was intercepted by the IDF according to various media reports. The group that organized the voyage, “The Freedom Flotilla Coalition,” which included climate justice activist, Greta Thunberg, was later detained in international waters by the IDF and Thunberg, at least, was promptly returned to Sweden, via France.

Meanwhile, as recently as June 26, The Guardian reported, “Israel has closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, as airstrikes and shelling killed dozens more people in the devastated Palestinian territory.”

As reported, Bronx residents, including some from Norwood, have previously held local rallies to help raise awareness of the humanitarian situation on the ground in the region, while other groups have called on local elected representatives to take action to end the suffering of Palestinians, a predominantly Muslim population.

 

Elsewhere in the borough, which is home to both a large Jewish population and a substantial Muslim population, regular vigils have been taking place to call for the release of the Jewish hostages. At the same time, the offices of some elected officials who displayed posters of the hostages and who have also called for their release have been vandalized, as was the case with Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), who represents parts of The Bronx and Northern Manhattan.

 

The conflict has also had an impact on local politics in New York City, with Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim born in Uganda and raised in New York City, emerging presumptively victorious following the release of this week’s unofficial Democratic mayoral primary results, in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel, beating heavyweight, former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

 

The unofficial results have been met with elation by some and dismay by others, and while many media pundits speculate that this is a landmark election that has the potential to change the political trajectory of the Democratic Party, since Mamdani is a Democratic socialist who ran on an agenda laser focused on affordability, others, like Murphy, who endorsed fellow Democratic progressive mayoral candidate, Brad Lander, are potentially more focused on humanity and on simply ending U.S. complicity in what they see as the unnecessary suffering of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including thousands of children.

 

Where images and reports of starving Palestinian kids have not moved a majority of Americans to insist that their elected representatives force Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to end the blockade, Mamdani’s supporters may be hoping that having a Muslim mayor at the helm of New York City, and by default on their TV screens every day, may be the only way to force politicians to address the humanitarian crisis.

 

Those wishing to donate to The Veterans for Peace / FOSNA, 40-day solidarity fast for Gaza can do so here.

 

For some related coverage, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, as well as some opinion pieces here and here.