Fast & Learn With Us - November Topics

FAQs

  • For two years, the Israeli military has bombed and attacked over two million people in Gaza. Israeli attacks have directly killed at least 68,000 people, including over 20,000 children.

    The true death toll is likely hundreds of thousands greater, after accounting for bodies still trapped under rubble and deaths due to disease, starvation, and inadequate care caused by the Israeli military’s near-complete destruction of civil infrastructure.

    For three months, the Israeli military blocked all food and supplies from entering Gaza. In May, they claimed to allow aid to enter. But Israeli soldiers and US contractors killed over 1000 people from May 27 to July 23 and wounded thousands more at “death traps” masquerading as aid distribution sites.

    In August, the UN declared famine in Gaza. In September, they determined the Israeli government is committing genocide there. On October 10, a ceasefire went into effect, but Israel has repeatedly violated it.

    Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 200 Palestinians between October 10 and October 30, while the Israeli military continues to severely restrict the entry of food and supplies into Gaza.

  • People of faith and conscience across the state refuse to go on with business as usual while watching people starve and die daily in Gaza. For 93 days from August 3 to November 3, 80 people across Indiana took 24-hour shifts of a continuous fast in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

    Now, we are holding collective fasts, where groups choose the same fast day and engage in collective action around their fast.

    Indiana Fast for Gaza is an act of public resistance, confronting US complicity in the Israeli government’s starvation of people in Gaza.

  • While fasting alone won’t feed Gaza, we believe in our collective power to force an end to the immediate crisis and bring justice closer. Jewish Voice for Peace Indiana and other faith and community leaders organized the Indiana Fast for Gaza to encourage collective action and mount public pressure on our elected officials to stop the genocide in Gaza. Our three action items are: 

    1. Contact Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott to ask that he stop buying and renewing Israel bonds—loans to the Israeli government that enable it to bomb and starve Gaza.

    2. Contact US Senator Todd Young (IN) to ask that he do everything in his power to get nutrient-rich aid and food into Gaza.

    3. Raise funds for the Middle East Children’s Alliance to provide urgent aid to children and families in Gaza.

  • Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott is ultimately responsible for investing state funds, including our tax dollars. Currently Indiana has invested $115 million in Israel bonds—meaning the state has loaned $115 million to the Israeli government in exchange for fixed-rate interest and repayment of the loan when the bond matures. This ranks among the highest investments in Israel bonds among US states, municipalities, and pension funds. (Little Sis Public Accountability Initiative, 2024, FOX59, 2025)

    Not only do these loans to the Israeli government make us complicit in its campaign of bombing and starvation against people in Gaza, they are also a terrible financial investment. Investors cannot sell the bonds before they mature, meaning they cannot make gains by choosing to sell bonds when the market price is higher. This makes Israel bonds lower reward and higher risk compared to similar fixed-rate investments. 

    Moreover, the top three credit rating agencies have rated the Israeli government’s credit outlook for the future as negative, meaning the risk that it will not repay bonds has increased and further downgrades to its rating are expected. (S&P, Fitch, and Moody’s, 2024). For any other country’s bonds, Indiana law requires that they have the highest investment credit rating by at least two national credit rating agencies. But lawmakers made an explicit exception for Israel—the Treasurer can invest in Israel bonds with no restrictions. (Indiana Code 5-13-10.5-10)

    State Treasurer Daniel Elliott can reduce Indiana’s financial risk and our complicity with genocide by not buying or renewing Israel bonds. He has both a moral and fiduciary responsibility to do so. We call on Treasurer Elliott as our elected official to divest from genocide and make sound investments that will increase funding for services that Indiana residents truly need like healthcare, education, affordable housing, and clean energy.

  • The Israeli government would not be able to continue bombing and starving the people of Gaza without the military, financial, and political support of the US government. Several resolutions have been raised in Congress to limit funding to the Israeli military, stop sending offensive weapons to Israel, or allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. So far, none have passed. 


    As Indiana residents, we are often in a discouraging position when it comes to calling on our Senators to take action. But with regard to food aid, Senator Todd Young has shown a willingness to act in the past. In 2022, he coauthored a bipartisan resolution condemning the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and championed humanitarian efforts in Yemen and Ukraine.

    We are asking him to fulfill the same moral obligation now in Gaza. There are shipments of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) packets, which are only used to treat malnourished children, waiting at Rafah to cross into Gaza. Sen. Young has the ability to apply political pressure and urge the Israeli government to allow such nutrition to reach the starving children who so desperately need it, and he must act now.

  • MECA’s Emergency Fund for Gaza supports a network of grassroots community organizations that are diligently stretching what food and supplies they can procure to reach as many displaced families as possible. MECA is prepared to expand their efforts as the ceasefire allows. Their steadfast staff and volunteers will continue to do everything they can for their communities.