An activist in Manchester is on day 10 of a hunger strike to protest the UK Government’s funding of Israel.
Lizzie Greenwood, who ran as a Worker’s Party MP in Withington this year, is protesting Labour’s “continued funding, arming and supporting of Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
In a video posted to her social media, the activist said: “this is a cause that I feel willing and obligated to die for”.
Previously a youth ambassador for the Holocaust Education Trust, the activist said she wants “to make sure that nothing as unspeakably evil as those events would ever be allowed to happen again”.
Therefore, Greenwood has pledged to strike “until the UK government ceases any and all arms sales and exports to Israel, and insists on all aid being allowed – unhindered – into Gaza and the West Bank”.
The activist has allowed herself a maximum of 250 calories per day if necessary, “in solidarity with the people of Gaza who are expected to live on this” after Israel blocked aid moving across the border.
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) has warned that the situation in Gaza “could soon escalate into famine” thus “leading to catastrophic consequences”.
Greenwood’s protest follows a number of pro-Palestine protesters staging similar hunger strikes across the UK since October 7th 2023.
A man in Bristol was hospitalised during his three month hunger strike, and students in Edinburgh went on strike for over 20 days.
Greenwood, who started her strike on October 27th, said in a statement to Mancunian Matters: “today will be my 10th day on hunger strike against the UK funding and arming of Israel, against the will and at cost to the welfare of British people.
“After a year of protests, direct action, petitions, and opinion polls, our Prime Minister stood on national television and said, ‘the UK stands unequivocally with Israel.’
“He lied. If everything so far has fallen on deaf ears, then I am forced to use the last form of resistance available to me, to make my disgust and objection known.
“I will not be made complicit. I object with every fibre of my being. And if it takes my health and my life to make that known then so be it.
“I accept my moral and human duty to resist.”
The activist previously sent the Government a letter arguing that they fund Israel whilst “British people suffer through cost of living crises, mental health increases, food bank shortages, and housing crises”.
Greenwood shared that the Government has not responded after she accused them of caring “as little for its own people as it does for Palestinian lives”.
Greenwood said her MP for Manchester Rusholme, Afzal Khan, has not commented on her hunger strike except to send a policeman to her house over concerns for the activist’s welfare.
The Labour Party and MP Afzal Khan have been contacted for comment.
Feature Image by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
