Hungry for Humanity: Solidarity Visit to Gaza Hunger Striker Nahed

Today I made a trip to Parliament House to sit on the grass with a young Australian I’d never met before.

Nahed Elrayes is on Day Three of a hunger strike against the genocide in Gaza. He used to work for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees. That was before its funding was shut down by Israel and the United States. He’s calm, articulate, brave, and resolute. And he is not eating.

When I learned about Nahed’s protest, I knew I had to be there. I did my climate hunger strike back in 2023. I know what it takes to sit in silence as the world goes by, hoping someone will stop, hoping someone will listen. I know what it takes to keep going when your body begins to resist you. So I went. Not so much as an activist, but as a fellow human being. And as someone who can empathise and support him and with the people of Gaza.

What Nahed is doing is more than protest. It’s an act of moral clarity. He’s putting his body on the line to ask Australia to look in the mirror. Who are we? What do we really stand for?

We’re told hunger strikes are extreme. But what’s truly extreme is Israel’s destruction of schools and hospitals. What’s extreme is children buried under rubble. What’s extreme is the calculated starvation of thousands of civilians in Gaza.

And what’s shameful is the acquiescence and inaction of Australia’s government.

To those who ask why I was there, my answer is simple: because human rights aren’t selective. Because decency is universal. Because if we wait for it to be comfortable or convenient to stand up, we never will.

Nahed shouldn’t have to do this alone. And we both know his small act of sitting on the grass with a sign won’t stop the bombing. But if it helps amplify courage and compassion, if it helps wake even one more conscience in Parliament House, then it matters.

I’ll keep showing up. Senator Fatima Payman did. And I hope you will. If you’re in Canberra, please swing past Parliament House and show Nahed some solidarity. And even if you can’t, follow him on Instagram and share his posts @nahedelrayes.