At this very moment, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have managed to survive Israel’s scorched-earth siege and bombing are being deliberately starved to death as a result of Israel’s 11-week blockade preventing food and aid from entering Gaza. As Jem Bartholemew writes at The Guardian, “The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC [Tuesday] morning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time. Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday but Fletcher described this as a “drop in the ocean” and totally inadequate for the population’s needs.” In response to this dire humanitarian crisis, students at multiple university campuses in the US have launched hunger strikes in solidarity with the starving people of Gaza. In this urgent episode, we speak with four hunger strikers at the University of Oregon (UO), including: Cole, Sadie, and Efron, three undergraduate students who are all members of Jewish Voice for Peace - UO and who just completed a 60-hour solidarity hunger strike; and Phia, a Palestinian-American undergraduate student who has organized with JVP-UO on the hunger strike and who currently remains on hunger strike herself.

Additional links/info:

• UO Gaza Hunger Strike Instagram and TikTok
• UO Gaza Hunger Strike: Community Calls to Action!
• Press Release: University of Oregon Students, Faculty, and Staff Launch “UO Gaza Hunger Strike” Campaign Protesting Mass Starvation and Genocide
• Jewish Voice for Peace - UO Instagram
• Nathan Wilk, KLCC, “University of Oregon protesters begin hunger strike for Gaza”
• Michael Arria, Mondoweiss, “Students across the U.S. are going on hunger strike as Israeli-engineered famine takes hold in Gaza”
• Syma Mohammed, Middle East Eye, “US: UCLA student hospitalised during hunger strike for Gaza”
• Jem Bartholemew, The Guardian, “First Thing: UN says 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in next 48 hours under Israeli aid blockade”
• Ronen Bergman & Natan Odenheimer, The New York Times, “In private, some Israeli officers admit that Gaza is on the brink of starvation”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘The raids happened Wednesday, finals started Thursday’: FBI agents raid homes of pro-Palestine students at University of Michigan”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘A tremendous chilling effect’: Columbia students describe dystopian reality on campus amid Trump attacks”
• Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “‘People are hiding in their apartments’: Inside Trump’s assault on universities” 
• Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Worse’ than McCarthyism: Trump’s war on higher education, free speech, and political dissent”

Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

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