Through the looking glass.
Mike Ferner, of Veterans For Peace, threw blood at the US mission to the UN today: “Here, United States, have some blood! You like shedding it all over the world so much? There you go! How about some blood? A small amount of the blood — the blood money — that corporations make taking us to war all the time. No. More. Killing. Please. Stop it.”
He and 28 others were reportedly arrested today. He had been participated in #FastForGaza
Most arrests took place at the Israeli mission to the UN where a mass action was. Joy Metzler, co-founder of Servicemembers For Ceasefire, was among those arrested there. She’s been doing #FastForGaza outside the US mission to the UN for the last 40 days. They limited themselves to “250 calories per day, considered medically to be a starvation diet and the amount reported early this year as the average available” to Palestinians in Gaza. Joy left the Air Force and became a conscientious objector, citing US aggression in the Middle East and the continued ethnic cleansing in all of Palestine and the ongoing mass massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
One of the last times I saw Mike he was railing about “fuckers” killing “fucking babies”.
Mike is a former Navy corpsman and author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq. Mike participated in the 40-day #FastForGaza until he had to be taken to the ER a few weeks ago. I repeatedly asked the UN about the fasters and if UNSG António Guterres would meet with them, but he never did: 35 Days of Fasting: UN Secretary General Won’t Meet With Gaza Hunger Strikers…
While I was in NYC recently, I repeatedly questioned the UN Secretary General’s spokespersons about Gaza and if he would meet with the Veterans and Allies who are on day 35 of a 40 day fast in front of the UN — it ends Monday — as well as other issues: Read full story.
In contrast to the lack of coverage of the Fast For Gaza, in 1965, Roger Allen LaPorte immolated himself outside the UN over war, resulting a front page New York Times piece (self-immolators against the Iraq invasion were largely ignored): Holocaust, Immolation, Sacrifice and “An Extreme Act of Protest”.
[Aaron Bushnell immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., a year ago today. A slightly edited version of this article appeared in the Nov/Dec 2024 issue of The Capitol Hill Citizen — which is only available in print. Read full story.
- Thanks to folks who took videos and Kelley Lane for editing.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Sam Husseini.