Last Monday, after consulting with medical professionals, 10 students from Western College launched a hunger strike, hoping to attract attention to their long -standing demands so that the university disintegrates from arms manufacturers with links with Israel as the war in Gaza continues.
And in this new protest season, they have added additional demands, asking Western to reinforce the protections for international students amid the efforts of the Trump administration to revoke the visas of the students whose activities consider that they are against national interests, in some cases aimed at students who have protested by the Israel War against Gaza.
Hunger hungry say they were inspired by the students of the University of Chapman in Orange, who launched a similar campaign in April. That strike ended after 10 days without concessions from his university. It seems to mark a new phase in protest tactics for students concerned with the difficult situation of the Palestinians now that many California campuses have banned or restricted the camps overnight that flourished the last school year, in some cases feeding violent confrontations and accusations of anti -Semitism.
The university students of Western who participate in a hunger strike meet in a patio near the campus dining room.
(Hon Wing Chiu / For Times)
The students of Western Justice in the Palestinian chapter occupied a camp for nine days last year, asking the university to disintegrate investments in manufacturing companies that have provided weapons and teams to the Israeli army. In May, the Western Trustee Board agreed to consider divestment and the camp fell, but the Board subsequently voted against divestment.
As of August, the total valuation of indirect investments in the companies to which students want to go was approximately $ 940,000, or about a tenth of one percent of the university's total endowment assets, according to the University spokesman, Rachael Warecki.
In a list of demands sent to Western President Tom Stritikus this week, hunger strikers raised their call for the university to eliminate direct and indirect investments in arms companies with links with Israel. They also asked that the campus reinforce the protections for international students by providing legal support for students who face visa revocations and eliminate the records of students from behavior positions related to protest. International students represent about 7% of the students in Western.
“I have spoken with the students who participate in this protest, and others throughout the campus, about these concerns many times in recent months,” Stritikus said in a message to the campus on Friday. “In this case, many of the initiatives for which the students advocate are already in their place, depending on the work we have been doing this semester for the benefit of our international students and the academic community. While it is possible that we do not agree on all the tactics to get there, I think we believe fundamentally in the future we want to build.”
On April 9, Stritikus issued a statement that announced that the University had signed in a brief brief registration of concerns about the efforts of the Trump administration to revoke the legal status of hundreds of international students, often with a minimum explanation. He said that if Western students lose their legal status, the University would make “all reasonable efforts” to help them retain eligibility for financial aid and housing.
He also said that the campus “would continue to provide community and individual resources, training and programming, such as our previous sessions of their community municipalities and timely orientation related to possible immigration application actions.”
But the students involved in the hunger strike say that the university is not doing enough. Friday represented on the 5th of his strike.
In daily video updates, they offer emotional convictions of the Palestinian deaths attributed to the continuous air attacks in Israel in the Gaza Strip, and a seven -week block that has exhausted food stocks in the region. Israel cut the entry of humanitarian deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza in early March, saying that he wanted to increase the pressure on Hamas to free the remaining Israeli civilians that the group took hostage during their mortal attacks in October 2023.
“The state of the world is so serious,” says Evan Zeltzer, a student of Western College, who participates in the hunger strike. “And I think we feel no other way for our voices to feel heard.”
(Hon Wing Chiu / For Times)
The strikers said they are only consuming water with electrolytic dust in zero calories.
Jackie Hu, 20, Junior, said that for the third day, he was becoming more difficult to sleep and was experiencing headaches, stunning and numbness. In addition to that, Hu, a biochemistry student, studies for the final exams next week.
“While that is difficult as a student, there is an ongoing genocide in Palestine, and there are no universities in Gaza,” he said.
Every day, the strikers established an area near the dining room of the Campus, with a cardboard signal that marks every day of the strike. For Thursday, some students were fainting, said Tobias Lodish, an organizer of justice students in Palestine.
That same day, Stritikus stopped to speak briefly with the students, according to the videos shared with the Times.
“I think everyone has a different vision of the things you want to do,” he told the students. “I have articulated why we will not do this, why we will not do that. And his hunger strike is different and not related to those demands.”
“You have control of feeding and I want you to do it,” he urged.
Evan Zeltzer, a 18 -year -old first year student who participated in the strike, said the students were cold and tired, but would persevere.
“The state of the world is so serious,” said Zeltzer, a critical theory and a social justice specialty. “And I think we feel no other way for our voices to feel heard.”
