Meet the American military veterans fasting for Gaza

Joy Metzler was a second lieutenant in the US Air Force when Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in protest against the US’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza.

The 23-year-old Metzler was so moved by Bushnell’s sacrifice in February 2024 that she began researching Palestine.

Horrified by Israel’s occupation and US backing for what international human rights groups, experts and several countries now qualify as an act of genocide in Gaza, she became a conscientious objector to the war, choosing to leave the air force in August 2024. 

Her application to be excused from the air force was approved in April 2025.

With death and destruction continuing to envelope Gaza through relentless bombardment and an aid blockade triggering starvation, Metzler continued to organise and look for new ways to advocate for an end to the war.

So when Veterans for Peace and Friends of Sabeel North America decided to launch a fast for Gaza outside the US Mission at the United Nations in New York City on 22 May, Metzler immediately got involved.

She told Middle East Eye that fasting felt like the “next logical step” but really “a moral obligation to be standing up against the human rights violations tantamount to a genocide, if not actually a genocide happening in Gaza”.Metzler joins 745 people, including three veterans from the Vietnam War, who have been fasting for the past 20 days across the US, in protest against the ongoing war in Gaza, where over 55,000 Palestinians have been killed. 

Veterans have either restricted their diet to 250 calories per day, less than a can of fava beans, in line with what Oxfam described in April as the abysmal average daily food intake of Palestinians in Gaza due to the military siege on the enclave.

Others who have joined the fast have followed the rules of the Islamic month of Ramadan, in which proponents steer clear of both food and water from dawn to dusk.

They say they are calling for the resumption of humanitarian aid under the authority of the United Nations, and for the US to halt its arms sales to Israel. 

Advocacy and outreach

With a core team of around seven standing outside the US Mission to the UN in New York City for the past 20 days, Veterans for Peace, which was founded in 1985 in response to the global nuclear arms race and US military interventions in Central America, have also been conducting outreach with several governments stationed at the UN.

Last week, a team from the group met with the Danish envoy to urge them to exert pressure on Maersk, the Danish shipping and logistics company that ships military cargo to Israel.

Though they weren’t able to convince the Danes to alter course on Maersk, organisers say that being at the UN has provided an opportunity to make envoys feel at the very least uncomfortable. 

Phil Tottenham, a Marine Corps veteran and a member of Veterans for Peace, told MEE he regularly sent updates to comrades around the world who were also fasting – in Hong Kong, Ireland and Germany, among other places – about the latest developments in New York as well as their interactions with ambassadors around the UN.

It helped build a sense of community and shared responsibility.

“I am here fasting because it was a thought that occurred to me about wanting to do something more.

“Prior to Aaron Bush self-immolating, I had had the thought of that, but didn’t have the courage to go through the pain of what he went through.

“And so that’s why I’m here fasting in New York City,” Tottenham, 47, said.

Tottenham added that as the descendant of a colonial settler who participated in the ethnic cleansing of indigenous people in Tejos and Mexico, it was a personal matter to him to stand up for the Palestinian people. 

“I couldn’t stand by and not learn from history and have another genocide of an indigenous people occur on my watch as a descendant of a white settler colonist,” he added.

Remembering Palestinians

Metzler admits that the last 20 days have not been easy.

But it has kept her razor sharp in remembering the plight of the Palestinians.

“We’ve talked a bit about how we’ve been feeling on 250 calories, but the reality is, we get to choose what fits in that 250 calories. We get to have fresh water, we get to have fresh vegetables, fresh food,” Metlzer told MEE.

“And the other thing is that 250 calories is an average, which means that some people aren’t even getting that. There are multiple stories of people who haven’t been able to eat anything for a couple of days.”

The veterans’ effort to conduct a mass fast is part of a global outpouring of solidarity for Palestinians.

“Watching hundreds of people maimed, burned, and killed every day just tears at my insides – too much like when I nursed hundreds of wounded from our war in Vietnam,” Mike Ferner, former national director of Veterans For Peace, said when the fast was launched in late May.

“Our taxes help Israel provide full health care to all its citizens while millions of Americans go without it, and we spend billions killing people. This madness will only stop when enough Americans demand it stops,” Ferner added.

Last week, a flotilla filled with activists, including Greta Thunberg, carrying aid to Gaza, was intercepted by Israeli forces. Members of the crew were held for hours in an Israeli prison, and reportedly subjected to abuse before they were deported. 

This week, thousands of people from around the world have descended on Cairo to embark on the Global March to Gaza.

Several reports indicate that the Egyptian authorities have been deporting activists before they could make their way to el-Arish, where the event was scheduled to begin on Thursday.

“I really think being outside the UN, and the US mission to the UN has been, has been a great, great choice for this fast and you know, we’re not even halfway through yet, so even though we’re tired, we’re looking forward to seeing what else can come out of this, Meltzer added.