At my university, the University of Minho, I am part of a group (GRCP) of professors and researchers committed to expressing solidarity with Gaza, denouncing Israel’s criminal actions, and advocating for the Portuguese government to officially recognize the State of Palestine. Below, I share an email I sent today to that same group:
Congratulations on your tireless and courageous work. Yet, what might seem like a growing wave of condemnation also reveals something more troubling: a scattering of efforts, fragmented and diluted. What we truly need now are not more isolated actions, but fewer—bolder, more disruptive, and deeply unignorable.
In that spirit, let me recall an extraordinary moment in recent history—not to suggest imitation, but to highlight the power of singular acts. In 2010, the self-immolation of one man—Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor—ignited a revolution that toppled a 20-year dictatorship and sparked a fire that swept across the Arab world. His tragic act forced the world to pay attention. So we must ask ourselves: what kind of action today could have the same seismic impact in condemning Israel’s brutality—without costing a single life?
If the most haunting image of Gaza today is that of children starving to death, then what if millions across the Western world united in an unyielding act of defiance—refusing food for a single day? A global day of fasting—not for health, not for religion, but for justice. Today, billions stand with Palestine—nearly 2 billion in the Muslim world alone. Now imagine 3 billion people, rising together in unbreakable solidarity for 24 hours.
The symbolic power of this act would be staggering. Major food conglomerates would see their stock prices shatter under the pressure. And a worldwide boycott of McDonald’s—the ultimate symbol of American economic and cultural dominance—even if only for a few weeks, would deliver a crippling unforgettable blow. This would be no mere protest. It would be a thunderous declaration—a message so loud and clear that even Donald Trump would be forced to rethink his blind unwavering allegiance to the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.
PS - If the world had the moral clarity to boycott Tesla over Elon Musk’s unapologetic embrace of far-right extremism and authoritarian politics, then boycotting McDonald’s isn’t just reasonable — it is a long-overdue moral obligation for anyone who claims to stand for truth, decency, compassion, empathy, solidarity, human rights, or basic human dignity.
Note (July 31): The top seven foreign readers of this post are from the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, Russia, Ireland, and the UK.
