Celebrity

Cynthia Nixon goes on hunger strike to call for cease-fire in Gaza

The "And Just Like That" actress said in a speech that she is "sick and tired of people explaining this away by saying that civilian casualties are a routine toll of war."

By Wesley Stenzel

Published on November 28, 2023 08:30PM EST

Cynthia Nixon is joining progressive lawmakers for a hunger strike in Washington, D.C., to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

In a video interview posted to social media Monday, the And Just Like That and Sex and the City star called attention to the plight of Palestinian civilians and urged U.S. officials to act. "The deaths that we have seen are largely due to the bombs, but so many Palestinians now are on the verge of starvation. Only 7% of the nutrition they need is being let in on a daily basis," Nixon said. "So we are here hunger-striking just to sort of mirror to Biden the kind of deprivation that is happening in Gaza, and how he has it within his power to make a cease-fire happen and to allow humanitarian aid in."

The hunger strike, which Nixon is undertaking for two days and some participants will undertake for five days, comes amid a temporary pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas, during which time numerous Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged. Nixon is joining Democratic state congressional representatives Abraham Aiyash, Zohran Mamdani, Sam Rasoul, Mauree Turner, and Madinah Wilson-Anton in the strike, according to Time.

"As the mother of Jewish children whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, I have been asked by my son to use any voice I have to affirm, as loudly as possible, that 'never again' means never again for everyone," Nixon said Monday in a speech outside the White House. "In seven weeks, Israel has killed more civilians on a tiny strip of land than was killed in 20 years of war in the entire country of Afghanistan."

Gazan officials estimate that more than 14,000 civilians have been killed since Oct. 7, compared to the 12,400 civilians killed by the U.S. and its allies during the war in Afghanistan, according to the New York Times. The Washington Post notes that such a figure represents more than one out of every 200 people in Gaza.

"I am sick and tired of people explaining this away by saying that civilian casualties are a routine toll of war," Nixon continued. "There is nothing routine about these figures. There is nothing routine about these deaths. I would like to make a personal plea to a president who has himself experienced such devastating personal loss to connect with that empathy for which he is so well known, and to look at the children of Gaza, and imagine that they were his children."

A longtime activist, Nixon previously ran for governor of New York in 2018, against incumbent Andrew Cuomo.

Nixon also said Monday that the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war has shined a light on an ongoing crisis: "The Palestinian cause has been one that so many people have looked away from for so long, and what's happening now is horrifying, but at least it is making it impossible for people to look away anymore."

Numerous other entertainers have called on President Biden to call for a cease-fire, including Dua Lipa, Oscar Isaac, Rosario Dawson, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Andrew Garfield, and Wallace Shawn.

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