Join Me? Gaza 40-Day Fast and 22-Mile Pilgrimage
Here is a quick video that I just posted about two ways that I am going to keep hoping and keep trying in my activism, advocacy, and solidarity with and for the People of Palestine (Full Transcript at the bottom of this post).
If you are interested in finding out more information about either of these offerings, read on!
40 Days and Escalate!
You’re invited to a 40-day fast for Gaza, organized by Veterans For Peace. On May 22, we begin our fasting across the country while demanding:
1) a resumption of humanitarian aid, under UN authority, to Gaza
2) that the U.S. stop arming Israel NOW!
Join us in our work! We imagine two fasting options: a centralized fasting location in NYC where fasters will commit to 250 calories a day, in line with the general caloric intake of Gazans under the ongoing Israeli military blockade, and a dispersed fasting option for folks to join the work from their local context. This action is open to all Gaza allies and people of good conscience who want an end to the genocide in Gaza, veteran or not.
For more info Email Addie, FOSNA National Field Organizer, before May 22.
Right of Return Pilgrimage
On June 8th, 2025, join Interfaith4Ceasefire and IM4HI to join our pilgrimage in public witness for the Palestinian Right of Return to their homes and families and affirm the human right to remain, return, and migrate. We will journey 22 miles—from Alameda to Berkeley—in reverse of last year’s pilgrimage route, journeying in prayer and solidarity with the right to return, symbolizing the distance from Rafah to Gaza City. This effort is part of the global movement of Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages that began last year and continues on. You can read more info about the movement here.
We gather in pilgrimage across spiritual and cultural communities because we uphold human life, dignity and mutual well-being as foundations of our spiritual beliefs. We recognize that the atrocities being carried out by U.S. tax dollars against the Palestinian people are intertwined with cruel and harmful U.S. policies of family separation, incarceration and criminalization that harms immigrants, unsheltered people, Indigenous, trans and BIPOC communities.
I hope you can join either or both of these efforts, but if not, do not lose hope and keep trying — and trying again.
Peace —
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Video Transcript:
Hey friends. We live in a country that is embracing, nationalized cruelty, defining human worth with arbitrary measures of citizenship and continuing to fund and support genocide in Gaza. While many would like to believe that this is not who we are, many of us know that this is how we've always been. Only now the voices of inequality and inhumanity and cruelty have been emboldened and elected. Sometimes it feels hopeless that nothing we do matters or makes a difference.
When the roots of that voice begin to grow in my soul, I remember that every generation of justice seekers has felt hopeless, and every generation of world changers has continued to do the work. But if not for their commitment to movements of justice, healing, and belonging in their day, what more of a mess would be in ours? So inspired by my ancestors, I brush aside hopelessness to the best of my ability, and I continue to do what I can. For when my descendants wonder what I did during the season of struggle, even if I don't see the solutions in my lifetime, I want them to know that I tried and I kept on trying.
There are two things that I'm taking on over the next few months in my ongoing activism, advocacy, and solidarity with and for the Palestinian people.
On May 22nd, I will join the 40-Day Gaza Fast organized by Veterans for Peace and Co-sponsored by Friends of Sabeel North America. I'll be fasting from dawn to sunset for 40 days joining with others to demand the resumption of humanitarian aid under UN authority to Gaza and that the US stop arming Israel now.
Then on June 8th, I will join the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and Interfaith4Ceasefire during portions of their 22-Mile Right of Return Pilgrimage in the San Francisco Bay Area as hundreds of us walk in public witness for the Palestinian right of return to their homes and families.
You are invited and welcome to join, support ,and amplify either or both of these efforts.
As I've said before, when it comes to doing my part, I've done more than many and far less than most. I will keep hoping and I will keep trying and I trust that you will too. Peace.