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NO ORDINARY SOLIDARITY — INSIDE CHICAGO’S HUNGER STRIKE FOR GAZA
 
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Joseph Mogul
July 10, 2025
Waging Nonviolence
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_ For 18 days, six members of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago led a
hunger strike that helped re-center Gaza in the public discourse and
pressure elected officials. _

Hunger strikers Ash Bohrer, from left, Benjamin Teller, Becca Lubow,
Avey Rips and Audrey Gladson during a Jewish Voice for Peace teach-in
at the Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago, Thursday, June 26, 2025,
(photo by Rachel Berkebile).

 

Ash Bohrer sat in a wheelchair outside of the Chicago Federal Plaza,
where they had been arrested for refusing to leave Sen. Tammy
Duckworth’s office hours earlier — and where six Jewish Voice for
Peace-Chicago organizers had launched a hunger strike for Gaza 18 days
prior. Reflecting on the highlights to that point, Bohrer, a
JVP-Chicago organizer and Notre Dame peace studies professor, said it
wasn’t the teach-ins, solidarity demonstrations or political wins
that came to mind first, but a message
[[link removed]] they
received from a mother in Gaza named Alaa. 

“When someone in Chicago chooses to face hunger willingly that is
not ordinary solidarity,” she wrote. “It is a profound act of pure
humanity.”

For Alaa, her three children and 2.1 million Gazans living in constant
danger of Israeli bombs, starvation is the other grave threat. On
March 2, Israel blocked all aid, including food and baby formula, from
entering Gaza. In May, the World Health Organization stated
[[link removed]] that
the entire population of Gaza faces prolonged food shortages and
500,000 people are battling catastrophic hunger.

“Hunger here is not a choice or a political stance,” Alaa’s
message read. “Hunger here is a decision made against us.” She
wanted the hunger strikers to know, “from the heart of this
catastrophe, I say: We see you, we feel you, and your actions reach us
even when the borders remain closed.”

After months without any aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip, the
U.S.-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, began distributing
small amounts of aid in late May. But to the people of Gaza, GHF is a
misnomer. 

According to a joint statement
[[link removed]] published
last month by over 240 international human rights organizations, more
than 500 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,000 injured for
trying to access aid at GHF sites. Israeli forces and armed groups
routinely open fire on starving civilians seeking food. GHF massacres
have been documented by firsthand Palestinian accounts
[[link removed]] and
Israeli soldiers who admitted
[[link removed]] they
were ordered to open fire on unarmed Gazans seeking aid. U.S. aid
sites have been called “killing fields
[[link removed]],”
“death traps
[[link removed]],”
and “the concentration camps of our time
[[link removed]].”

Out of these dire conditions, Palestinian organizations in the
solidarity movement brought a direct ask to Jewish Voice for Peace:
Center the forced starvation of Gaza in their organizing. This message
was disseminated at the JVP National Members’ Meeting in May, where
local JVP leaders — including those from Chicago — were directed
to discuss specifics with their chapters. 

“In conversation with the chapter, we decided there is no better way
to highlight what starvation is doing to the people of Gaza than to do
a solidarity hunger strike,” Bohrer said. They saw the hunger strike
as an intuitive way to refuse any pretense that Jewish life is more
important than Palestinian life. The message was simple and effective:
“While Gazans cannot eat, we will not eat.” This escalation had
the dual purpose of centering the forced starvation in Gaza in public
discourse and pressuring politicians into action. 

Avey Rips, another JVP-Chicago hunger striker and graduate student at
Northwestern, explained that “part of why hunger strikes work is
because people are confronted with both the cruelty of humanity,
symbolically represented in the body of strikers, and their
steadfastness toward the pursuit of justice.”

Since May, the student movement has adopted hunger strikes as a
central tactic. Students at Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, the University
of Oregon, CUNY and dozens more launched concurrent strikes, demanding
their universities divest from assets that support the Israeli
occupation. They hoped that their hunger strikes would raise awareness
of forced starvation in Gaza.

In response to the same crisis, but with a broader scope, JVP-Chicago
launched its own indefinite hunger strike on June 16 during a press
conference at Federal Plaza, visible from the offices of their elected
officials. Over the next 18 days, they co-organized 23 events with 36
movement organizations. Fourteen solidarity strikes were launched
across the country, and a network of 60 local volunteers stepped up to
support the hunger strikers, while JVP-Chiacgo took the fight to their
senator’s doorstep. 

THE POWER OF SOLIDARITY

On day five of the strike, Tzedek Chicago, a local anti-Zionist
synagogue [[link removed]] led by Rabbi Brant Rosen,
hosted a “Shabbat in the streets” at the Federal Plaza. Over 50
community members gathered to sing, pray and call attention to the
genocide in Gaza. Tzedek endorsed the strike on day one and encouraged
congregants to attend events. 

“Shabbat was a great way to frame the strikers’ work from the
prior week, making Olam Haba, or the ‘world to come,’ real through
their solidarity,” Rosen said. 

It also underscored a distinct characteristic of the strike: It was
led by Jews whose opposition to Zionism is rooted in their Jewishness.
Bohrer, who grew up in a religious household, shared that their
Holocaust education taught them “one of the most important things
about being Jewish is refusing to stand by and do nothing while we
watch injustice.”

On day 10, JVP highlighted the local lineage of hunger strikes in
Chicago, inviting veteran organizers from the Dyett High School,
General Iron and Little Village School hunger strikes to lead a
teach-in. Lessons were shared from successful parent-led campaigns
that pressured the city to reverse decisions to disinvest from schools
in Black and low-income communities. This teach-in and much of the
programming throughout the 18-day strike emphasized cross-movement
connections. Other teach-ins covered Black-Palestinian solidarity,
pinkwashing, Irish-Palestinian solidarity and militarized policing
from Chicago to Palestine.

“It’s really exciting to see the ways we are able to collaborate
with so many organizations who are seeing connections between
Palestine and other issues,” Bohrer said. “Our power comes from
our solidarity,” Rips added. Collaborating with 36 organizations
from a diversity of political focuses increased engagement and allowed
for consistently high turnout at events. 

On day 12, 14 JVP chapters around the country organized one-day
solidarity fasts to uplift the demands from the Chicago strike. “I
fasted to help increase and maintain public attention on the
starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and support the social media
campaign of the Chicago hunger strike,” said Ray Himmelman,
organizer with Twin Cities JVP. 

The Chicago strikers also received an outpouring of international
support and messages of solidarity from France, Ireland, Egypt and
Palestine. They were even visited by Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian
journalist from Gaza who was on a speaking tour in Chicago.

Avey Rips (center) with other JVP-Chicago members protesting during
their hunger strike. (JVP-Chicago)

MOUNTING POLITICAL VICTORIES

As the widespread support generated by the strike mounted pressure on
politicians,  JVP-Chicago achieved some tangible political victories.
They secured meetings with federal legislators, including Reps. Mike
Quigly, Robin Kelly and Bill Foster, to discuss the Block the Bombs
Act [[link removed]] — a bill currently in the
House that, if passed, would prevent the Trump administration from
delivering major U.S. weapons to Israel. Rep. Danny Davis agreed
to co-sponsor the bill
[[link removed]] after
meeting with hunger strikers, likely a result of the political
pressure by JVP. Several elected officials also attended their events,
including Rep. Delia Ramirez, State Sen. Gabriela Guzman and multiple
city alders.

In addition to these legislative wins, 25 stories in local and
national publications covered the hunger strike, and they raised
nearly $15,000 for Middle East Children’s Alliance.
[[link removed]]

As the wins piled up, JVP attempted to leverage its momentum to secure
a meeting with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who sits on the Foreign Relations
Committee and who Rips describes as having “supported Israel with a
blank check.” (Sen. Duckworth has received over $780,000 from
Pro-Israel PACs
[[link removed]]).
For years, Duckworth refused to meet with Palestinians and their
supporters, despite Chicago having the largest Palestinian population
of any U.S. city. 

During the first week of the strike, JVP managed to meet with a
staffer, who promised to let them know whether Duckworth herself would
meet with them by July 1 (day 16 of the hunger strike).  

STEADFASTNESS GROUNDED IN COMMUNITY AND HISTORY

Meanwhile, the strikers’ health had started to deteriorate. They
were battling nausea, fatigue, temperature dysregulation and walking a
few steps had become a strenuous task. Doctors examined them daily and
two of the six strikers ended their participation during the second
week due to medical concerns.

But the hunger strikers remained steadfast in their commitment to each
other and their political objectives. “As our bodies have gotten
weaker, our spirit and resolve have gotten stronger,” Bohrer said. 

Behind the scenes, a network of 60 JVP and non-JVP volunteers emerged
to provide around-the-clock care for the hunger strikers. This
community care team filled over 2,000 cumulative hours of volunteer
shifts, assisting with pivotal tasks such as monitoring vitals,
driving strikers, setting up and breaking down events, press liaising
and even impromptu jail support. 

“This strike could not have happened without our support team,”
Rips said. “This has really shined a light on how movements need
community. We’re family now. It’s not just us [the 6 strikers],
it’s also the care team.”

The strikers’ steadfastness was grounded in both their local
community’s support and the long history of hunger strikes that JVP
studied before their launch. In addition to the local Chicago
campaigns, they were inspired by the 2012 Palestinian prisoners’
strikes
[[link removed]].
An estimated 1,600-2,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons went on
hunger strike to demand the end of administrative detention — the
illegal practice of holding prisoners indefinitely without charge or
trial. The Palestinian prisoners’ strike catalyzed solidarity
demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza, a source of inspiration for
the nationwide JVP solidarity fasts on day 10.

While JVP-Chicago replicated tactics from a number of strikes, Rips
believes there were also some unique features. Rips breaks down hunger
strikes into two categories: those led by incarcerated people
(including the Palestinian strikes), and those with hyper-local stakes
(such as the three Chicago campaigns or those focused on university
investments).

“What we were doing is a variation on this method, because we’re
targeting the entire U.S. government with maximalist demands,” Rips
said. They understood President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu were not going to change their minds and lift the siege on
Gaza overnight, but there was an opportunity to pressure elected
officials and re-center Gaza in public discourse.

A FINAL ESCALATION

As the deadline for a response from Sen. Duckworth’s office came and
went, the strikers’ vitals were trending down and the community care
team was running low on capacity. 

On July 3, day 18, it was time for one final escalation. 

Members from JVP-Chicago, including two hunger strikers in
wheelchairs, approached Sen. Duckworth’s office to ask for a meeting
in person. They attempted to enter but found the doors locked.
According to Bohrer and Rips, the staff pretended that nobody was in
the office (a claim since repeated), despite answering the intercom.
After confirming with Duckworth’s other offices that the Chicago
office was indeed open that day, they flooded the Chicago staff with
calls saying they weren’t leaving without a meeting. 

“In response to that, they called the Federal Protective Service,”
Bohrer said. “They handcuffed everybody who was at the office,
including myself and one other hunger striker.” Eight members of
JVP-Chicago were charged with failure to comply and disorderly
conduct.

Hours after they were arrested and released, Bohrer said, “It’s
very energy intensive to be arrested. What happens from here remains
to be seen. We are feeling extra exhaustion and tiredness and pain in
our bodies.” 

The next day, on July 4, JVP-Chicago announced that the hunger strike
had ended. On advice from doctors, they decided that after Bohrer and
another striker were arrested, they had reached the limits of what
their bodies could endure without permanent damage. The hunger
strikers are now in the process of regaining their strength.

Describing their recovery, Rips emphasized that the situation is worse
in Gaza. “The people in Gaza don’t get to choose to end their
starvation. They’re living in rubble. They are injured. They don’t
have air conditioning. They have to walk miles for food and are shot
in the head while waiting.”

The hunger strikers hope their action can inspire future strikes, and
they carry many lessons forward. One of the biggest takeaways is the
importance of community support.

“A hunger strike takes a village,” Bohrer said. “We think about
the individual people who are forgoing food, but it takes a team.”

Another lesson is that to be effective, you can’t just starve at
home — you have to bring your bodies and message to elected
officials’ offices every single day and pressure them to act. 

JVP-Chicago [[link removed]] is publishing a forthcoming
pamphlet that will include medical research from dozens of
professionals on sustaining hunger strikes, spreadsheets about how to
organize volunteers, and a to-do list for resources and preparation.

“We put this issue in front of millions of eyes, so even if this is
a drop in the bucket, it’s a bucket we are trying to collectively
fill with justice,” Rips said. “And I’m honored to put a drop in
it.”

If the JVP Chicago hunger strike is indeed just a drop in the bucket,
it’s a drop that will have ripple effects for courageous acts to
come.

_Joseph Mogul is an anti-Zionist Jewish writer, organizer, and
independent journalist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. You can
read more of his work at hereandtogether.substack.com
[[link removed]]._

_Waging Nonviolence is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to
providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements
around the world. With a commitment to accuracy, transparency and
editorial independence, we examine today’s most crucial issues by
shining a light on those who are organizing for just and peaceful
solutions._

* Jewish Voice for Peace
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* Gaza
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* hunger strike
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* Tammy Duckworth
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