A group of graduate students at Yale University has initiated a hunger strike to protest the institution's financial ties with companies supplying arms to Israel amid its prolonged military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.
The hunger strike was organized by the student group Hunger Strikers for Palestine, following a letter addressed to Yale President Peter Salovey. The letter demanded that the university divest from companies involved in manufacturing military technology for Israel's operations in Palestine.
"We demand that by the morning of this Friday, April 12, 2024, you make a public statement committing to divest from all weapons manufacturing companies contributing to Israel’s assault on Palestine," read the letter, as shared with the UK-based news outlet Middle East Eye.
The students further urged the Yale Corporation board to discuss plans for divestment at its upcoming meeting and release a public statement acknowledging the same.
According to the letter, Yale has invested over $640,000 in companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, which manufacture weapons used in Israel's attacks on Gaza.
The Hunger Strikers for Palestine group has been pressing Yale to divest from these companies since Israel began its aggressive campaign on Gaza last October. Despite multiple appeals, the group claims that their efforts to communicate with the university administration have been largely ignored.
Yale University's Graduate Students for Palestine (GSP), which supported the hunger strike, emphasized that the action was a last resort after months of being ignored by the administration.
"This is the last thing folks are able to give, their bodies," a GSP member said, speaking anonymously to Middle East Eye. "In the total nonresponse of any kind from the institution we are speaking to, the final thing we can put on the line really is our health and well-being."
This hunger strike at Yale follows similar actions at other universities across the United States, where students have protested against Israel's military actions in Gaza and criticized Washington's unwavering support for the Israeli regime.
Earlier this year, students at Brown University launched a hunger strike demanding divestment from companies profiting from Israel's war on Gaza. Similarly, a student at McGill University was hospitalized after initiating an indefinite hunger strike protesting the school's investments in similar companies.
Israel launched its offensive on Gaza last October, following Palestinian resistance groups' Operation al-Aqsa Storm in retaliation for ongoing Israeli violations in the occupied West Bank. Since then, the conflict has claimed the lives of at least 33,634 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, and displaced half of Gaza's 2.4 million population. The campaign has also led to the destruction of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region.
