CSU students start 'indefinite' hunger strike in support of Palestinians

Molly Gibbs, The Mercury News on May 6, 2025

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Around two dozen California State University students say they have started an “indefinite” hunger strike in support of Palestinians facing starvation in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Students are demanding each CSU campus and the California State University system as a whole adopt policies divesting from companies that “supply weapons, military and surveillance technology, infrastructure, or conduct activity that violates human rights as defined by international law.”

California State University did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this news organization.

Students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach are participating in the hunger strike.

Students are also calling for the universities to end any academic partnerships with “Zionist universities and the CSU International Program at the University of Haifa” and demanding CSU end its “time, place and manner” policy, which limits where, when and how students can protest on campus.

“We as San Jose State University students deplore our university’s administration for choosing to remain complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people.” said Haddy Barghouti of Students for Justice in Palestine at San Jose State University. “As the genocide continues, and San Jose State administration continues to ignore international law, it is up to us as students to take matters into our own hands and make the issue unavoidable, which is why we will be starving in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Gaza until university administration meets all of our demands.”

San Jose State did not immediately respond to a request for comment from this news organization.

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The move comes days after the University of San Francisco committed to divesting from defense companies tied to Israel after facing pressure from students. San Francisco State University pulled its investments from four companies tied to weapons manufacturing in August and Sacramento State became the first public California university to divest from companies that “profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights” in May 2024.

“We, the students of Sacramento and San Francisco State, acknowledge that our universities achieved individual divestment on our campuses, but the California State University system remains complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people through millions of dollars invested in defense companies and weapons manufacturers,” said Max Flynt, a member of the General Union of Palestine Students at San Francisco State University. “This act of solidarity aims to shed light on what exactly the people of Gaza are facing, and make it inescapable for the administrations of these universities as students have continued to organize since the beginning of this genocide. We will continue to strike in solidarity with other CSU campuses and with the people of Gaza who face bombardment and a forced starvation campaign facilitated by the Israeli government.”