Soapy is on hunger strike

my tummy hurts. Almost done with day 3. We have a little spot on the quad staked out where we sit all day and talk to anyone whose interested. So far been really positive reactions from other students. Been interviewed by the local campus paper and might get the front page which would be nice. Also Iranian state media haha.

Solidarity comrade!

good luck!

Edited to mention that I agree with the people saying not follow through on killing yourself.

I'm soooo hungry.

Please call the Israeli officials to demand the release of the prisoners!

Here's an update on the situation http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=516

are you actually willing to kill yourself over this, seems a bit of an over top form of solidarity.

Just wait till your ma's find out about this.

Yeah sorry mate, but going on hunger strike in the US in an attempt to influence Israeli domestic policy? Next you're gonna tell me you're a stu...oh!

If this is a publicity stunt aimed at raising awareness of the plight of the Palestinian hunger strikers, seems like it's being reasonably effective. If it's 'for real', I doubt one more body weighs particularly heavily on the minds of Israeli statesmen, given their track record. I assume the former, tbh.

If it's a publicity stunt it's retarded and at the risk of moralising pretty damn insulting to those people actually pushed to hunger strike through the desperation of their situation.

As for it's effectiveness, well everyone I know who is aware of it thinks it's mental and a bunch of first world students making idiots of themselves.

There are many reasons our organization decided to begin the hunger strike. First of all, solidarity hunger strikes were successful last February in securing the release of Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan. Second of all the hunger strikes raise awareness of our organization and have a deeply inspiring effect on anyone who cares to learn about what we are doing and most of all the families of the hunger strikers who have been told about our action. Furthermore, we have educated many people about the Israeli judicial system with the hunger strike, people who would never have learned about it were it not for our sacrifice.

In summary, it's a hell of a lot more effective than doing nothing.

So youse are on this till they are all released, so it's for realz then?

Let's see how long this last till your ma's come down to the quad, slap youse round the head and make you eat the sandwiches they loving cut into triangles.

"But hunny, they're your favourite"

"Okay then mom, but only one"

I don't know who you think this kind of hysterical solidarity action inspires, especially when youse inevitably don't carry it through.

Is there an argument there or are you just trolling someone who's on day 5 of a hunger strike to make yourself feel better?

I should add that there are two of us who have to work real jobs along with all of our schoolwork while we are not eating, this is extremely difficult and shows the maturity and steadfastness of members of our organization

The argument is that your actions show a complete inability to grasp the seriousness of a hunger strike, of the desperate conditions that would drive a person to starve themselves to death. To show there is a world of difference between someone locked up for years without charge in an Israeli jail and a bunch of students in the US playing at hunger striking on the lawn of their campus.

The fact you pull the "I'm on day 5 of a hunger strike" card sums up exactly what is going on here, this is just a vanity exercise for youse, it is not born of the desperation of your circumstances.

What the hell are you talking about? When did we ever say that our sacrifice is anywhere near the level of sacrifice being made by the hunger strikers in Palestine? First you criticize me for doing too much in terms of solidarity, then you criticize me for not doing enough while you sit at your computer and do absolutely nothing.

So you accept that none of your reasons have anything to do with forcing the hand of the Israeli state? Do you honestly think that a handful of international calls to a Brigadier in the IDF will end this? I mean, is this even a coordinated action?

BTW the US has prisons with people dying in them too, y'know, probably on an order of magnitude larger than in Israel.

Caiman notice that the first point I made was that solidarity hunger strikes led to the release of Khader Adnan

Also, members of our organization are also members of the local student group Justice not Jails which focuses on mass incarceration in the US

But you're not in Israel...

But seeing as Israel receives complete economic and diplomatic support from the US government, changing US public opinion about the conflict is of great importance

but your hunger strike is on till the Israeli's release them.

are youse serious about going all the way with this hunger strike, have youse thought through the seriousness of doing so?

the fact two of youse are still going to work suggest not.

I don't even know if you are being serious at all at this point. Of course we are aware of the dangers of continuing this hunger strike for too long. It's ridiculous that you would even suggest that we have not considered this.

I don't think that solidarity hunger strikes in America had anything at all to do with it. In fact I didn't even know that there had been any. I think what prompted his release was not only the fact that he was nearing the point of death (anything after 52 days is dangerous) but also demonstrations (including mass limited hunger strikes) were beginning to become a public order problem in Israel and Palestine.

I would be completely amazed if anything you do has any impact at all on Israeli military decisions as I am absolutely sure that they will assume that a bunch of kids in America are not going to starve themselves to death, which I sincerely hope you don't.

Well no, you don't have to. You don't have to be on hunger strike.

Devrim

Down now from your cross.
Down now from your papal heights, from that churlish suicide, petulant child.
Down from those pious heights, royal flag bearer, goat, billy.

Still I'm sure it will make for an impressive story in the Student Union bar.

The reasons for Khader Adnan's release can be debated but I do think that international solidarity played a major role.

Obviously we are not entirely sure if our hunger strike will have any effect on Israeli decision making, we are simply trying our best. We urge everyone we talk to to call the numbers that I posted to demand the release of the hunger strikers and we hope that this will show that Israel cannot just treat these prisoners in this way without some international outcry.

There are difficulties that we face in trying to change public opinion about Israel, and we are trying our best to confront them.

But you could have done an info picket, even a symbolic protest fast?

Announcing youse are on hunger strike is crazy because a hunger strike is meant to be a last ditch thing, born of absolute desperation, it isn't just another piece of agit prop to be suggested in the student union.

Frankly I find your "hungerstrike" insulting, displaying a complete lack of understanding of it's seriousness.

So you've gone from juvenile mocking of us to claiming to be offended by the fact that we are taking an action that is borne from an intense feeling of solidarity, one of the most beautiful aspects of human existence. You'll have to understand if I don't feel bad.

Why are mocking you and being insulted be mutually exclusive.

Get down off your cross, we need the wood.

I think the deeper disagreement here is that you feel the personal responsibility to 'do something' to help Palestinian prisoners, while others don't. I don't doubt your sincerity Soapy, but I think not doing anything about Palestine is fine. I mean, Israel does some nasty shit. But I mean, 'what are you doing about the civil war in DRC?', 'what are you doing about HIV/AIDS in sub-saharan Africa?', 'what are you doing about repression in China?', 'what are you doing to stop women being stoned in Saudi?' and so on.

The world is full of really horrible shit, injustice is everywhere, and it's not my or your personal responsibility to take the burden upon ourselves to solve it all (especially stuff we have basically zero power over, like the policies of states thousands of miles away). The stuff we can change is much closer to home (for student activism, look at CLASSÉ). And paradoxically, once you have the power to change things closer to home, you're in a better position to offer meaningful international solidarity (e.g. historically, IWW dock workers in Philly who refused to ship arms to General Franco).

I realise you've obviously thought this through, and you're unlikely to change your mind because some people on the internet criticise you/call you names. But there's a political point in amongst the cheap shots at student politics.

How are they cheap shots?

I mean I'm aware they are easy and obvious but they aren't dishonest.

You are correct in thinking that I've thought all of this through many many times. To respond to your first point, I'm not trying to criticize people who are doing nothing about the situation in Palestine, what I am trying to say is that why are people criticizing me for trying to do something? Isn't trying to do something better than doing nothing?

In regards to student organizing, while on hunger strike I have still been playing a very active role in the organizing efforts surrounding our attempt to build a student union on campus, the two actions are in no ways mutually exclusive.