When we first checked in on the ‘Hunger Strike for Palestine’ at Princeton University this week, the strikers were upset that no one at the school was monitoring their health.
Now they seem angry that they’re being ignored. Worse still, they don’t seem to have any identifiable exit strategy.
From the progressive site Democracy Now:
“We Feel Unheard”: Hunger-Striking Princeton Students Vow to Fast Until Divestment Demands Are MetOver a dozen students at Princeton University have been on hunger strike for the past week as part of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on the university to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel, among other demands. The hunger strikers are also calling for all charges to be dropped against a number of students arrested on campus in late April as part of the encampment.Areeq Hasan, a graduating senior at Princeton who has not eaten for a week, tells Democracy Now! the hunger strike was a response to the university’s stonewalling. “We feel unheard at every step of the way, so therefore we resorted to a hunger strike,” says Hasan, noting the long history of hunger strikes as a means of protest. “It is in solidarity with the history of Palestinian political prisoners since 1968. … We’re tapping into this long-standing tradition with both Palestinian political prisoners and also in the Irish and Indian liberation movements.”
They want so badly to be taken seriously.
Some faculty members claim to support them but not for the long term.
The school is handling this correctly; it’s doing nothing.
Also, do we believe that these students have really gone 8 days with no food?
This report is from News 12 in Long Island:
Pro-Palestinian hunger strike at Princeton University marks 1 weekPro-Palestinian protesters at Princeton University marked one week Saturday into a hunger strike.It comes after 13 students were arrested for trespassing late last month during a protest.The student-led hunger strike is in solidarity with Gaza after demonstrators said their demands were not met by university officials.Twelve students committed to not eating in response to university administrators who barred a group of students from the university for participating in a sit-in that occurred in late April.One student was sent to the hospital for malnutrition.Demonstrators said they’ll continue to starve until their demands are met.This is all happening during finals week and right before graduation for some demonstrators at one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
These young people have lost the plot and someone needs to ask them a simple question grounded in reality.
Is this what you went to Princeton for?
Featured image via Twitter video.
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