Calling to End Forced Starvation in Gaza

Tagan Engel (middle) & Jamilah Rasheed (far right) speaking at the Pedal for Palestine protest in New Haven, CT, September 2025.

On September 21, 2025 my dear friend and fellow food and land justice activist Jamilah Rasheed and I participated in the Pedal for Palestine protest organized by our New Haven, CT Jewish Voice for Peace community. We were asked to speak at a community garden about issues of forced starvation, and food and land sovereignty for the Palestinian people. There were also stops at a school to speak about the killing of children and bombing of nearly all of the schools in Gaza; at a Hospital to speak about the bombing of hospitals and kidnapping of doctors; and at our local TV station to speak to the intentional killing of an unheard of number of journalists in an attempt to silence on-the-ground reporting of the horrors being committed in Gaza. Below are the words we spoke.

Hello, my name is Tagan Engel and my name is Jamilah Rasheed

Tagan:
We are here today as two long time New Haven food and land justice activists, as growers of food, as cooks, as mothers (and a grand mother) as a jew and a muslim, and as women who work everyday to protect the fundamental rights of every single human being to have food, clean water, and self determination. We care deeply for the people in our local and global communities.

Jamilah:
For nearly two years since Oct 7th, we have protested, organized, taken every action we could think of and cried so many tears at the genocide being committed upon the Palestinian people. We are here before you today to call for an end to the forced starvation and attempted extermination of the Palestinian people.

Jamillah: 
We are standing here at one of our many community gardens in the Hill neighborhood where I also live and steward a garden. This land we stand on without fear of expulsion and death, is rich with nutrients to grow the food we need to eat, and this is something that the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, no longer have the freedom to do. Under the Israeli system of apartheid - Palestinian people faced forced displacement from their land. Just imagine having had space to provide food for your family and then suddenly it is all destroyed. The UN warns that more than 95% of the land is unusable for growing food, which translates to only 5% of it that might be in a state that can be cultivated. Northern Gaza has experienced the highest level of damage which includes 70% loss of orchards and other trees. Nearly 1 million olive trees have been destroyed by Israel since 1967. Can any of us imagine our life blood being cut off? Field crops and vegetables like we see here are gone due to relentless bombing and military equipment that has trampled life out of the soil. The people are being totally pushed off their homeland and cannot even think about growing because they are fleeing for their lives. Their life blood is the land, and they are completely uprooted from the land. 

We can see the desperation to survive by any means necessary in the faces of mother fathers and their children. This is an intentional attempt at exterminating a people and we as American citizens are partners in this because our tax dollars are financing it. 62% of Americans oppose the plan to take over the Gaza strip and nearly half of Americans strongly oppose it.. 

Tagan:
The occupation of the palestinian people and land has meant decades of Israeli rationing of water and food to the Palestinian people. Israelis have had access to water on demand, while Palestinians in the territories receive rations that have not changed even as the population has grown by 75%. According to the Israeli group B’tselem, in May 2023, just before Oct 7th, Israelis used 3 times the daily water per person that Palestinians were allowed. Palestinians had so little water that it was comparable to disaster zone levels as defined by the World Health Organization - and this was before the bombing of infrastructure and blockade of nearly all aid. In addition to controlling what food could enter the occupied territories, In 1977 Israel made it illegal for Palestinians to harvest za’atar and ‘akkoub - wild thyme and wild thistle - two plants that have been central to Palestinian culture and food for thousands of years. Israel fines and arrests Palestinians for picking these herbs which is a violation of Palestinian food sovereignty and yet another attempt by Israel to erase their connection with land and culture. 

The current forced starvation of Palestinians by the Israeli government - with US support - has been going on for almost two years now and has gotten increasingly dangerous. The UN and World Health Organization have confirmed that more than half a million people are now facing famine in Gaza. This means that Palestinians are now dying of starvation caused by the blockade of food aid and destruction of nearly all sources of food and water. Millions of people in Gaza are facing severe malnutrition - not having any food or water for many many days at a time.-- Can you imagine if 4 times the population of New Haven were literally dying from starvation right now, and all the people in bordering towns had nothing to eat or drink for days on end - all while food and water could easily be brought in from Milford, Cheshire and Branford if the occupying government would allow it? This forced starvation and attempt to exterminate Palestinians must end immediately, and there must be consequences for this war crime. 

Jamilah: 
Why Palestine and why me? I am reminded by my faith that I must spread peace and feed the people. I have known hunger and poverty as a child. So as an adult, I am empathetic with those who struggle with food insecurity. I have been an activist for years to ensure that people whose voices are silenced need to be heard. I have been doing everything I can to bring attention to the horrible things happening in Gaza, including standing in silent protest in the public eye to remind my fellow citizens of the genocide. It has the largest number of child amputees in history. Starvation has resulted in a famine which has resulted in the international community affirming that we we are witnessing a genocide. I understand that we are all human so we must recognize our humanity as one. As an African American, I can relate to the oppression that has restricted the Palestinians in their effort to be a free people living according to their God given rights. The relationship between the Palestinians and the people of African descent is well documented. And I am dedicated to preserving that relationship through my activism.

Tagan: 
I am the grandchild of holocaust survivors. Nearly all of my family was killed by the Nazi’s through forced starvation and genocide. My grandparents met and fell in love in a death camp, and were part of one of the only successful escapes - so they lived to tell the story of this attempted extermination of my people. I took many powerful lessons from this history: in particular that never again means never again for anyone, not only the Jews. That we must all stand in solidarity with each other for the safety and liberation of ALL peoples. We must never dehumanize anyone, never allow the lives of one people to be treated as more valuable than the lives of any other people, and we must stand against genocide no matter how difficult it is - in particular at this moment with the Palestinian people - as it is our government that is funding this and could stop it with one phone call. 

Jamilah:
We stand here as a Jew and a Muslim, as two people who feel deeply connected to the Palestinian people and are horrified by the starvation and genocide being committed by the Israeli government. We must never stop speaking about the people of Palestine. Don’t let it become a side story. This is a genocide happening in real time. 

Tagan:
Our country is blocking the attempts by every other country in the United Nations to stop this forced starvation and genocide. It is our particular responsibility as Americans to speak out, to organize, to run for political office, to raise awareness of your neighbors and family members, and to stop supporting corporations that finance this genocide. 

Tagan: 
Food is a human right.

Jamilah: 
Land is a human right.

Together: 
We stand here together to ask you to keep doing everything you can to END this starvation and genocide of the Palestinian people. 

September 21, 2025