Yale Grad Students Begin Hunger Strike

(Updated) Twelve Yale graduate students have begun their hunger strike in an effort to pressure the university to divest from weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s war in Gaza.

The students, who call themselves ​“Hunger Strikers for Palestine,” began their strike on Saturday in front of Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library. Supporters joined for art-making sessions and to help draft letters to Yale President Peter Salovey calling on the university to divest.

The strikers will continue drinking water, but no food. There are ​“relay strikers,” who will be striking for more than four days but less than eight, and ​“indefinite strikers,” so there will be some staggering. The strikers will also be sleeping in their respective homes, rather than an outdoor encampment, according to an anonymous statement provided by the hunger strike group.

See below for an earlier version of this article.

Yale Grad Students To Go On Hunger Strike

Twelve Yale graduate students will go on a hunger strike starting Saturday in an effort to pressure the university to divest from weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s war in Gaza.

The students, who call themselves ​“Hunger Strikers for Palestine,” announced their coming strike with a Friday press conference held outside of Sterling Memorial Library on Yale’s downtown campus.

The students — many of whom chose to remain anonymous as they spoke while masked at Friday’s press conference — said they’ve decided to take this step because Yale President Peter Salovey did not respond to a list of demands delivered on Wednesday. 

Those demands included calling on Salovey to make a statement committing Yale ​“to divest from all weapons manufacturing companies contributing to Israel’s assault on Palestine.” They have also demanded that Salovey discuss a plan for divestment with the rest of the Yale Corporation board at its next meeting.

The group’s press release lists Yale’s ties to the war as including more than $1.3 billion of the university’s endowment being managed by Farallon Capital Management, ​“whose warfare investments include shares in Aerojet Rocketdyne and Howmet Manufacturing, respectively deemed ​‘crucial to the defense of Israel’ and the ​‘backbone’ of F‑35 fighter jets used in airstrikes against Gaza.” 

The press conference speakers on Friday cited the more than 33,000 Palestinians who have been killed in the last six months during Israel’s war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, as well as the more than one million people experiencing famine as key to why they feel compelled to act. 

“I can’t keep living as if there isn’t an ongoing genocide and I am not a member of the community that’s been made complicit against its will by Yale’s continued investment in the arms and tools of war that have been used against Palestine by Israel,” said Lukey Ellsberg, a 29-year-old PhD student in religious studies and history of science. 

“Whatever it is that we might put ourselves through is something that can be stopped at any time,” said 34-year-old Miguel Monteiro, a PhD student in Near Eastern languages. ​“We have medical protection, it’s our own choice — it’s a drop in the ocean to what’s being inflicted upon Gaza. We hope that this small act of self-sacrifice will help not only the Yale Corporation but the larger world community to pay attention.”

In response to the Independent’s request for comment, a university spokesperson wrote, ​“Yale is steadfastly committed to free expression and the right to peaceful protest” and emphasized student well-being and encouraged students to consult with clinicians at the university health center. 

The university’s statement cited ​“a rigorous process to ensure the ethical management of its endowment, guided first and foremost by these longstanding principles.”

Late last year, the statement continued, the university’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) ​“was asked in its open meeting to consider a policy of divestment encompassing manufacturers of military weapons. The ACIR has looked into the issue and is preparing to provide an update to the community in the coming weeks.”

The students join activists at Brown University, McGill University, and the University of South Florida, who have also participated in hunger strikes to protest their universities’ responses to the war in Gaza. 

The hunger strike also comes seven years after another group of Yale grads ​“fasted” in a bid to pressure the university to recognize a graduate student-worker union.