On the first day of the Save Gaza hunger strike, Rachel Weingartner, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she was irritable. On the second, she smoked a lot.
Weingartner refrained from eating during daylight hours for four days as a fundraiser for the Save Gaza organization.
The fundraiser, part of the Palestine Awareness Week run by Students for Justice in Palestine, raised $200, according to Elizabeth Detwiler, a graduate student in the School of International Service.
The group will continue to collect money until the end of the semester. The hunger strike was for students to donate the money they would normally spend on themselves for food to sustainable development in the Gaza Strip, Detwiler said. Save Gaza will use the money in its project to build home gardens, she said.
Detwiler devised the fundraiser plan after reading a news article that reported 80 percent of Gazans are dependent on food aid and over half are food-insecure, she said.
"What affected me even more was that the crisis is man-made, meaning that the people living in the Gaza Strip would have adequate water and food if it were not for the border closures and economic sanctions that have been imposed by Israel and the international community," Detwiler said.
It made her feel helpless, she said.
"But because of that, I was inspired to do something," Detwiler said.
Save Gaza emphasizes that its project goes beyond food aid, as it helps Palestinians grow their own produce and is not affected by border closures, she said.
Palestine Awareness Week also included Palestine 101 on Wednesday, as well as a film screening of the Academy Award-winning short film "West Bank Story" co-sponsored by the Interfaith Council. Approximately 40 people attended the screening, according to Interfaith representative and College of Arts and Sciences senior Hal Steinberg.
"West Bank Story," winner of the Academy Award for best live action short film, is a musical comedy about competing falafel stands, parodying "West Side Story."
The event opened with free falafel and hummus and was followed by an open dialogue about the movie and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Students for Justice in Palestine ended the week Thursday with Palestine Culture Night in the Tavern, featuring an oud player and poetry by students who have been to Palestine.
