After ten days of a hunger strike, a group of Princeton University students has suspended their protest in favor of nourishment.
The 13 students, who had been staging a sit-in on the New Jersey campus in solidarity with Gaza, announced the end of their hunger strike via an Instagram post, stating, "the first hunger strike wave ended."
The students, who had been fasting for nine days, were replaced by seven alternates on the tenth day. "Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment Update: Due to health concerns of the 13 strikers who fasted for 9 days," the post read, "the first hunger strike wave ended, and the second wave has begun. In the tradition of rotary hunger strikes, Seven new strikers are indefinitely fasting for a free Palestine."
However, the term 'indefinitely' may be interpreted as another ten-day period, based on the precedent set by the first group. The students shared a graphic with the caption "we will not rest until divest," indicating their demand for Princeton University to sever investment and cultural ties with Israel.
The Instagram account, Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest, stated, "The campaign calling on Princeton to divest from Israel. No more war profiteering, no more upholding apartheid, Princeton out of Israel now!"
Throughout the ten-day hunger strike, the students received support from various groups who participated in solidarity fasts. Over the previous weekend, a group of professors joined the students in a 24-hour fast. They visited the Gaza camp to offer their support through video testimonies endorsing the students' actions. They asserted that the students were merely acting on the teachings imparted to them.
An associate professor stated, "the students have simply done what they were told to do," while a professor from the English department added, "Our students are putting their bodies on the line to try to affect change, and teaching them how to affect change is what we do as educators."
Halfway through their strike, the students reported feelings of hunger and claimed to be "all immunocompromised." One student lamented, "We are both cold and hot at the same time," adding, "we are all immunocompromised. And based off the university's meeting yesterday with some of our bargaining team, they would love to continue physically weakening us because they can't stand to say no to unjust murder." They further criticized the university for not doing enough to ensure their health during the self-imposed fast.
The students' demands included "complete amnesty from all criminal and disciplinary charges" for those participating in the hunger strike. They initially called for a meeting with the university to discuss their demands for disclosure, divestment, and a full academic and cultural boycott of Israel, as well as the reversal of all campus bans and evictions of students.
In a statement, the students declared, "The University and the world must recognize that we refuse to be complicit in genocide, and will take every necessary action to change this reality, our hunger strike, though small in comparison to the enduring suffering of the Palestinian people, symbolizes our unwavering commitment to justice and solidarity."
The university administration appears to have adopted a wait-and-see approach, and it remains uncertain what leverage the smaller group of hunger strikers will have in influencing the Ivy League institution's investment strategy.
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