Pro-Palestine Yale students continue hunger strike over Gaza aid crisis

A hunger strike involving several Yale students in solidarity with Gaza is entering its seventh day, with organisers demanding the university's financial divestment from Israel, among other changes.

Yalies4Palestine, a group recently stripped of its official club status by administrators, announced its plans to begin a hunger strike last Saturday to bolster similar hunger strikes related to the Israel-Gaza war taking place at California State University, UCLA and Stanford University.

“We felt like a hunger strike was really our final option and I think we especially felt called to it because of the famine in Gaza,” one organiser said.

At least six students, one staff member and a Yale graduate taking part are demanding that administrators begin a financial and ideological divestment from Israel, adopt a human rights screening policy for investments, repeal “restrictive free speech policies” and protect students taking part in the strike.

Two of the students involved, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution by administrators, said they'd tried to meet Yale's president Maurie McInnis, but she had not responded.

“The university has very much not engaged with our core demands, and their only interactions with us have been aimed towards offering medical support, both like physical and psychological,” said one of the demonstrators, adding that the group had peacefully gathered in the lobby near the president's office, but were later asked to leave.

“They felt very threatened by our peaceful presence, and then they weaponised that,” the student added, saying that entrances to the building were later locked.

Another demonstrator told The National that Yale College dean Pericles Lewis met the hunger strikers on Wednesday, but the dialogue went nowhere.

“He was very patronising in his response, telling us that we were endangering our own health, and anyone supporting the strike was essentially responsible for any self harm done.”

Yale's media relations team confirmed to The National that Mr Lewis met students, but disagreed on exactly what was said.

“As with other Yale University administrators, Dean Lewis’ foremost concern is for the students’ health and well-being,” read a statement.

“He also sought to have a conversation with the students, who are affiliated with the group Yalies4Palestine, and to bring back what he heard to President Maurie McInnis.”

The demonstrators, however, say that Yale's president is going against precedents set by other US university leaders who have met with demonstrators sympathetic to the plight of millions of Gazans.

“It's pretty damning, I mean you have this leadership position of a billion-dollar corporation and they refuse to meet individuals who have this extreme intention, put their body on the line, what does that say about the institution?” one of the students said.

As for the group's demands for divestment, among other policy changes, Yale said that various committees and high-level staffers at the university have listened to and deliberated similar demands for more than a year.

Yale's statement said divestment has been “formally proposed” through the university’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility and Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility twice in the past two years.

“In both instances, divestment was not recommended for action,” the Yale statement said, adding that it always encourages students to go through the proper processes to try to change policies.

Meanwhile, Israel's total blockade of Gaza continues to block food, water or medicine from entering the enclave.

Some humanitarian agencies have described it as the worst starvation campaign in modern history.

On Wednesday, a new humanitarian foundation said it would begin delivering Gaza aid by the end of May. The UN has criticised the organisation.

Israel's punishing campaign in the enclave – which followed the 2023 attacks by Hamas-led fighters on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the capture of 240 hostages – has killed about 53,000 people and injured at least 118,000.

The war has prompted heightened Islamophobia as well as a spread of anti-Semitism in various parts of the US.

Like other universities, this is not Yale's first controversy over how it has handled students and staff expressing support for Palestine, and it is not its first confrontation with Yalies4Palestine.

Last month, Yale administrators faced criticism after deciding to rescind the student club status of Yalies4Palestine.

Yale said the former club played the role in organising what administrators deemed to be a disruptive protest, an accusation the group has vigorously denied.

Also in April, Yale sacked Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar of international law who was accused of having connections to terrorism by an artificial intelligence-powered news site, Jewish Onliner.

In a statement to The National, Alden Ferro, a senior associate of public affairs at Yale, said the school repeatedly tried to talk to Ms Doutaghi and her lawyer but she refused to meet to respond to questions.