Brown University Students Launch Hunger Strike for Palestine

By Staff, Agencies

A coalition of students at Brown University in Rhode Island have embarked on a hunger strike demanding that the university divest from companies profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

In its statement, the group said that the 19 students - made up of Palestinians, Jews, as well as others from the student community - would go on with their hunger strike until the university did its part to promote an immediate and permanent ceasefire by introducing a divestment resolution at the next meeting held by university's governing body.

The Corporation of Brown University, the university's highest governing body, will hold its first meeting of 2024 on the 8th and 9th of February.

“Given the escalating violence in Gaza, this hunger strike emphasizes the urgency of passing a divestment resolution in this meeting rather than delaying the process any further,” the students said.

Palestine Solidarity Caucus and Jews for Ceasefire Now who organized the hunger strike, said that they want the resolution to follow the recommendations of a report released in 2020 by the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices [ACCRIP] that called for divestment from companies involved in the occupation in Palestine.

The report identified the following companies for divestment: AB Volvo, Airbus, Boeing, DXC, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Oaktree Capital, Raytheon and United Technologies.

According to the Brown Daily Herald, around 350 people were in attendance when the student groups announced the hunger strike on Friday afternoon.

One Palestinian participant in the hunger strike, Nour Abaherah, said she was compelled to act.

“As a Palestinian, I have witnessed colossal losses in Gaza, the West Bank, and around the world; the ongoing impact of this humanitarian crisis has fuelled my commitment to justice,” Abaherah, a second-year master of public health student at Brown, said in the statement shared by the group.

The hunger strike kicked off with a rally for divestment that drew hundreds of Brown community members.

According to the Brown Daily Herald, around 350 people were in attendance when the student groups announced the hunger strike on Friday afternoon.

Brown University is an Ivy League school that has been a hub of protests since “Israel” began bombarding the besieged Gaza Strip on 7 October.

This hunger strike is one of several attempts to force the university to divest from “Israel”, in what students say is an untenable position that renders Brown complicit in the harm of others.