More than 30 California State University (CSU) students are on a hunger strike to protest against Israel’s blockade of food and water going into Gaza, which has placed the enclave’s population at ‘critical risk’ of famine.
In a video released on Sunday, the students said that the hunger strike is growing across campuses: ‘It’s day seven of the CSU hunger strike for Gaza. We remain steadfast in our struggle for a free Palestine.
‘This has grown to other campuses across California and the nation. We call on every student to use their voice, their body, their collective power to make this genocide inescapable for our administrations.’
The students are also calling for CSU to divest from companies that provide weapons and surveillance technology to Israel, and said they had committed to the hunger strike after calls from students at Palestinian universities.
The students, who are from CSU Long Beach, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and San Jose State, began the hunger strike on 5 May.
They are urging CSU to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco State University, which divested last year from weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, data analysis company Palantir, and construction company Caterpillar, following a student Gaza solidarity encampment last spring.
They said that students at UCLA, Stanford, and Yale Universities are also participating in the hunger strike.
The students have been drinking water with electrolytes and having their vitals tested twice a day.
In a statement released on the day they commenced the hunger strike, Students for Justice in Palestine said: ‘We … students from four universities across CSU system, Long Beach, San Jose State, and Sacramento, will begin a united hunger strike in solidarity with the two million Palestinians at risk of starvation in Gaza.’
The students said the hunger strike is ‘indefinite’, and demands CSU-wide divestment, including demands that San Jose State University, Long Beach State University and the California State University system adopt the San Francisco State University human rights investment policy screening.
They want universities to divest from companies that supply weapons, military and surveillance technology, infrastructure, or conduct activity that violates human rights as defined by international law, including companies like Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Palantir, and Leonardo.
They are also demanding that the universities end all ties to Israeli institutions within study abroad programmes, and lift any policies that place restrictive and repressive measures on freedom of speech and protests on university grounds.
Students cited CSU’s Long Beach holdings in defence company Northrop Grumman as an example.
CSU holdings in Northrop Grumman were $128,605 last June, down from $481, 862 of its assets in 2020 when it had investments in both Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. In 2021, the university sold its Raytheon stocks, according to the Long Beach Watchdog.
Students have said that hunger strikes have deep roots in Palestine, Ireland, India, South Africa and the US.
In a post on social media, they said that Palestinian prisoners have been at the front of mass hunger strikes demanding their release and Palestinian liberation.
The hunger strikes commenced after Israel’s aid blockade entered its third month, despite international condemnation, as well as Israel’s announcement that they would intensify its attacks on Gaza.
Organisers have been holding educational workshop during the strikes.
Amy Bentley-Smith, CSU’s director of media relations and public affairs, said in a statement that they would ‘not be altering its investment policies’ as a result of student hunger strikes.
‘While the CSU and its 23 universities honour the right to protest and the diverse convictions expressed across our campuses, the CSU will not be altering its investment policies.
‘We will continue to uphold the values of free inquiry, peaceful protest, and academic freedom – while keeping student health, safety, and our mission at the forefront of all we do.’
In Canada, proponents of divesting from Israel chalked up a victory at the University of Toronto last week.
Faculty and librarians at the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) successfully voted for their pension plan to divest from Israel last Thursday.
The UTFA wanted its pension plan to commit to ‘responsible investing’ and proposed a motion to do so.
A motion, which passed by 52 per cent of the vote, called for the University Pension Plan (UPP) to divest from the manufacturing of weapons used to commit or facilitate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian Territory.
It called for Ontario’s UPP to screen any new investments that manufacture or distribute arms, ammunition, implements, or munitions of war which may be used by Israel to commit or sustain human rights violations in Palestine and provide a rapid timeline for complete divestment from all direct and indirect holdings.
This request also extended to the support of an ‘illegal occupation’ in any other territory, including Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
The motion also demanded the UPP produce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from all such investments.
Meanwhile, a group of at least 10 Stanford students and three staff members on Monday joined campus protesters across California in a hunger strike, pledging not to eat until the university agrees to divest from companies that are supporting Israel’s war in Gaza.
One of the strikers, Maryama Salam, said students have been pushed to use the ‘dangerous tactic’ after more than a year of protesting hasn’t yielded any policy changes.
‘We know what a hunger strike does to the body, and we have felt pressured after so much repression and lack of movement, or even listening from (the administration), to take such a drastic measure,’ she said.
‘We’re here because the people of Gaza have been starving, and we recognise our privilege as students in a very wealthy and elite institution, taking on this tactic.’
Over last weekend, the Stanford students sent a letter to campus administrators calling on the school to divest from companies that supply weapons and surveillance technology to Israel, including Chevron, big data analytics firm Palantir Technologies and military contractor Lockheed Martin.
The action comes days after students at four California State University schools began a unified hunger strike last week, later joined by activists at Cal State East Bay.
They said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians who are at increasing risk of starvation as Israel’s blockade on food and aid entering Gaza stretches into its third month.
‘We’re inspired by the CSU and we thought that what they were doing was super courageous … and saw this as a tactic we can take on as well,’ Salam said.
‘We are talking to those organisers. We are in close work with those organisers … and we’re really proud of their work, and we want to bring that to our campus as well.’
In addition to divestment demands, Stanford students are also urging the school to roll back stricter protest regulations, call on the Santa Clara County district attorney to drop charges against a dozen students linked to a June demonstration, and denounce the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian student activists.
Salam said that as of Monday morning, the group had not heard back from university officials. Stanford did not respond to a request for comment by KQED.
Stanford students held one of the longest-standing pro-Palestinian encampments last autumn and winter, which stood on the school’s central White Plaza for more than 100 days before it was taken down for violating overnight camping restrictions.
A second encampment emerged in the spring as the protest movement swept more US campuses, but it was removed again after students occupied the university president’s office in June, leading to 13 arrests.
In the autumn, Stanford administrators tightened a campus ban on overnight camping, began requiring registration for large demonstrations and designated zones where protests can occur.
Last month, 12 of the students arrested in June were charged with felony vandalism and conspiracy to trespass.
In March, the Santa Clara County district attorney declined to charge a student journalist who was also arrested while covering the demonstration.
The strikers are demanding that the school repeal those protest limits and publicly oppose the charges brought by District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
‘We want the school to recommit to their free expression in support of students protesting,’ Salam said.
She pointed to campus protests in 1969 and 1977 that led to the end of classified military research at the university and the adoption of an ethical investment policy related to apartheid South Africa.
This time around, Salam said students feel like the university’s stance toward the charges against students ‘chills and represses political expression and Stanford’s rich history of sit-ins’.
The students are also asking Stanford President Jonathan Levin to sign an open letter released by the American Association of Colleges and Universities denouncing what it believes is government overreach by the Trump administration.
Since Trump took office, multiple international students studying in the US have been detained by immigration officials, and they believe their outspoken support for Gaza made them targets.
In March, the Trump administration pulled back $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University, one of 10 schools it said it is investigating for ‘failing to protect Jewish students’.
Salam said that while Stanford has not yet faced such funding cuts, she and other student activists feel that the school is trying to appease the Trump administration.
‘They’ve already chosen what side they’re on, and we’re demanding that they reconsider and join this coalition of schools denouncing what’s happening rather than complying preemptively,’ she said.
Stanford President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez did release a statement in support of Harvard after it refused to make certain changes in the face of funding cuts.
Beginning on Monday, striking students and staff are gathering each day from 6pm-8pm along with members of Stanford’s Muslim community and pro-Palestinian activist groups, who are fasting in solidarity, according to Salam.
‘We want Stanford to come to the table,’ she said. ‘We want them to uphold the values that they always claimed to have, which is a commitment to open inquiry, a commitment to ethical investment.’