"We Feel Unheard": Hunger-Striking Princeton Students Vow to Fast Until Divestment Demands Are Met

Over a dozen students at Princeton University have been on hunger strike for the past week as part of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on the university to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel, among other demands. The hunger strikers are also calling for all charges to be dropped against a number of students arrested on campus in late April as part of the encampment. Areeq Hasan, a graduating senior at Princeton who has not eaten for a week, tells Democracy Now! the hunger strike was a response to the university’s stonewalling. “We feel unheard at every step of the way, so therefore we resorted to a hunger strike,” says Hasan, noting the long history of hunger strikes as a means of protest. “It is in solidarity with the history of Palestinian political prisoners since 1968. … We’re tapping into this long-standing tradition with both Palestinian political prisoners and also in the Irish and Indian liberation movements.”