Pro-divestment students end eight-day hunger strike
While they have ended their hunger strike, the 14 students continue to express dissent toward the University’s investments in military weapons manufacturers.
Christina Lee, Photography Editor
On Sunday evening, the Hunger Strikers for Palestine announced on Instagram that they have ended their hunger strike on its eighth day.
The coalition of hunger strikers, consisting of at least 12 graduate students and two undergraduates, originally announced their intent to go on hunger strike in a letter to University President Peter Salovey on April 10. In the letter, they demanded that the University publicly commit to divestment from divestment from weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza by April 12. Students also demanded that the Yale Corporation discuss plans for divestment at its meeting on April 20.
After the University did not publish a statement committing to divestment on April 12, the students announced in a press conference that same day that they would begin their strike the next day, on April 13. The end of the strike comes a day after the Yale Corporation held its last meeting before the end of the academic term on Saturday and four days after the University announced it would not divest from military weapons manufacturers.
On April 14, the day after the strike began, the University issued an unsigned statement acknowledging the ongoing student hunger strike, adding that police were investigating a threatening statement made at the hunger strike and supporting the strikers’ “right to peaceful protest.” The University made no other public comment on the strike.
“Yale clearly values the investments to be gained from military weapons manufacturing over Palestinian lives and students’ wellbeing,” the strikers wrote in a statement.
While the strike has ended, strikers affirmed their continued insistence that Yale divest from weapons manufacturers and “end its complicity in the genocide of Palestinian people.”
The announcement also stated participants had lost an average eight percent of their body weight, with some losing up to 16 pounds. At this time, the News has not been able to determine the immediate reason for the end of the hunger strike.
This is a developing story that the News will continue to follow.