On Monday, after consulting health professionals, 10 students from the Western College launched a hunger strike, hoping to draw attention to their long -standing requests so that the college is deposited by arms manufacturers with links with Israel while the war in Gaza continues.
And during this new protest season, they have made additional requests, calling on the West to strengthen the protections for international students in the radical efforts of the Trump administration to revoke the visas of students whose activities consider contrary to national interests, in certain cases targeting students who protested the War of Israel against Gaza.
Hunger attackers say they were inspired by students from Chapman University in Orange, who launched a similar campaign in April. This strike ended after 10 days without concessions from their university. It seems to mark a new phase of protest tactics for students concerned about the fate of the Palestinians now that many California campuses have prohibited or restricted the camps overnight which made a year last year, in some cases, fueling violent confrontations and anti -Semitism allegations.
The students of the Western college participating in a hunger strike meet on a terrace near the dining room of the campus.
(Hon Wing Chiu / For Times)
Western students for justice in Palestine occupied a camp for nine days last year, calling on the college to depart from investments in manufacturing companies that provided weapons and equipment to the Israeli army. In May, the Western board of directors agreed to examine the divestment and the camp declined, but the board of directors later voted against divestment.
In August, the total evaluation of indirect investments in companies that students wish targetingly were around $ 940,000, or about one tenth of the total endowment assets, according to the spokesman for the Rachael Warecki college.
In a list of requests sent to the President of Western Tom Strikus this week, hunger attackers have replenished their call for college in order to remove direct and indirect investments in arms companies with links with Israel. They also asked that the campus strengthens protections for international students by providing pro Bono legal support for students confronted with visa revocations and by extending the files of students of charges related to protest. International students represent around 7% of the student body in Western.
“I discussed with the students who engaged in this demonstration, and others across the campus, several times in recent months,” said Stitikus in a message at the campus on Friday. “In this case, many of the initiatives that students recommend are already in place, on the basis of the work that we have done this semester for the benefit of our international students and our university community. Although we do not agree on all tactics to get there, I fundamentally believe that we are aligned with the future that we want to build. ”
On April 9, Stitikus published a statement announcing that the college had signed a brief suspicion of registration friendships concerning 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 the students in Western were losing their legal status, the college would make “all reasonable efforts” to help them maintain eligibility for financial aid and housing.
He also declared that the campus “would continue to provide community and individual resources, training and programming, as our previous one know your rights sessions, community town hall and timely advice related to potential actions to apply immigration”.
But the students involved in the hunger strike say that the college is not enough. Friday represented day 5 of their strike.
In daily video updates, they offer emotional convictions of Palestinian deaths attributed to the continuous air strikes of Israel on the Gaza Strip, and a seven -week blockade that has exhausted food stocks in the region. Israel reduced the entry of humanitarian deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza in early March, saying that it wanted to increase pressure on Hamas to release other Israeli civilians that the group took hostage during its deadly 2023 deadly attacks.
Student Evan Zeltzer, on the left, checked his vital signs by Ixchel Hernandez on day 5 of a hunger strike in the Western College.
(Hon Wing Chiu / For Times)
The strikers said they only consumed water with zero-calorie electrolyte powder.
Jackie Hu, 20, a junior, said that the third day, he became more difficult to sleep and that she knew headache, dizzy and numbness. In addition to that, HU, a major in biochemistry, is studying final exams next week.
“Although it is difficult as a student, there is an ongoing genocide in Palestine, and there are no more universities in Gaza,” she said.
Each day, the strikers installed an area near the dining room of the campus, with a cardboard sign marking every day of the strike. On Thursday, some students vanished, said Tobias Lodish, an organizer for students for justice in Palestine.
The same day, Strikus stopped to speak briefly with the students, according to videos shared with the Times.
“I fully appreciate your passion with this, and I understand it, and I share it-that’s why we did what we have done,” he told students. “I think you all have a different vision of the things you want me to do. I explained why we will not do that, why we will not do that. And your hunger strike is different and unrelated to these requests. ”
“You control yourself, and I want you to do it,” he urged.
Evan Zeltzer, an 18 -year -old student who participated in the strike, said the students were cold and tired, but persevered.
“The state of the world is so disastrous,” said Zeltzer, a major in critical theory and in social justice. “And I think we don’t feel other way to feel heard of our voices.”
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