Health concerns end hunger strikes for Gaza at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach (CSULB)
Students at UCLA and CSULB end their hunger strike for Gaza, but students pledge to continue to fight for an end to the occupation of Palestine
On May 9th, third-year UCLA Palestinian student Maya-Ayooni Abdallah launched her hunger strike on campus after learning about the twenty-five students across four Cal State University (CSU) campuses who had begun their hunger strike for Gaza on May 5th. The strikers across CSU and UCLA are part of the nationwide divestment movement that was sparked on April 17th, 2024, at the Columbia University encampments.
The strikers' demands call for their schools to divest from companies associated with the occupational government of Israel. This marked the sixth school to join the movement in California. It started in April with two universities, Chapman University in Orange County and Occidental College in the northeast LA region of Eagle Rock.
Abdallah was also involved in the student encampments at UCLA, where on May 2, 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) violently arrested and shot at unarmed students peacefully protesting. “We have every right to protest on campus and demand that our university divest from Israel,” said Abdallah in an interview on her seventh day of her hunger strike at UCLA.
On Saturday, May 17th, Abdallah, who was on her way to a protest to commemorate the ongoing Nakba day, was hospitalized while on campus at UCLA. It marked her ninth day of her hunger strike. “I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately,” said Abdallah in her Instagram post.
The hunger strike to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine resonates deeply for the third-year college student. “I’m half Palestinian, half Lebanese. I was in Palestine in the West Bank on October 7th. So I definitely felt very compelled to share, and tell the truth of what was happening in Palestine,” Adballah said.
Adballah’s act of defiance, refusing food until her university takes meaningful steps in divesting from Israel, has received support from fellow UCLA students, activists across the LA area, and other strikers at CSU campuses. On Saturday, when the news broke that she was hospitalized, people took to social media to show their solidarity with the third-year UCLA student.
“I heard the call from the CSU students and joined them in this protest,” Abdallah said. “Every day on campus, someone approaches me to tell me that they support my protest and saw it on social media.”
Abdallah’s hunger strike is not about personal gain but about forcing the world to acknowledge the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the colonial Israeli government, which the U.S. government funds. Since her first day of the hunger strike, Israel has killed 21 children in one airstrike, and on the 77th anniversary of Nakba Day, May 15th, Israel killed 115 Palestinians in another airstrike. This destruction adds to the ongoing denial of humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip for months, and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on April 25th that food has run out in the enclave.
On May 21st, humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip after eleven weeks of denying them entry. “None of this aid, that is, a very limited number of trucks, has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme.
Abdallah took to Instagram to thank everyone who reached out to her after learning that she was rushed to the hospital. She seems to be doing better and is still doing other work to advocate for a free Palestine and an end to the occupation.
On Monday, May 19th, the students at Cal State Long Beach posted on Instagram that, after twelve days, they also ended their hunger strike.
They posted on their Instagram:
“For 12 days, we put our bodies on the line in a hunger strike, one of many happening across the country, in solidarity with the people of Gaza, and alongside students at UCLA, Stanford, Yale, and across the CSU system” — “We went on hunger strike because we refuse to be complicit or allow our peers to ignore the starvation and genocide of Palestinians”
In a powerful act of protest, we are witnessing young activists nationwide demanding urgent action on a devastating humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. From university campuses to social media campaigns, these determined youths are using their voices, their skills, their bodies, and their networks to call for an end to the occupation of Palestine.
Overall, their protest underscores the failure of local and global leaders to address the urgent needs that Palestinians face daily, including access to clean water, food, medicine, and healthcare, and much more.
UCLA divestment movement
With an international uprising against Zionism, various forms of protest, such as hunger strikes, school encampments, walkouts, and much more, have emerged nationwide. UCLA students have refined their methods by deepening their understanding of how their university is connected to the Zionist movement, and they aim to inform people about how the UC system is intertwined with Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
In March, organizers at UCLA published a report, “Unmasking UCLA: White Paper,” that details how the UC system is in bed with the colonial government of Israel through a variety of methods. “In this moment of crisis, institutions of higher learning across the US and the world have begun to re-evaluate their complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people through financial, political, and academic support of Israel and military corporations that profit from war and genocide,” reads the White Paper statement.
The UCLA divestment movement is steadfast in its demands, which are listed on its website. These are some:
Divest all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation funds from companies and institutions involved in the Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people.
Disclose all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation assets and funding sources, including but not limited to contracts, grants, gifts, and investments.
Boycott all academic ties to occupation and genocide, including by terminating all gifts, grants, contracts, and endowed positions funded by weapons manufacturers directly perpetuating the genocide of Palestinians.
Abolish all policing on our campus.
Photo Source: Unmasking UCLA, White Papers Website 
Photo Source: Unmasking UCLA, White Papers Website
The divestment movement falls in line with the United Nations court ruling that calls for the prevention of genocidal acts in Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have found and confirmed that all nations are obligated to cut their military and economic support to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Therefore, urging the UC school system to sever its connections with Israel due to its illegal occupation and treatment of Palestinians aligns with the judge's ruling.
The front line is everywhere
The movement to free Palestine from the illegal occupation has reached every aspect of life in the US. In the days following October 7th, protests erupted in every major city and small towns nationwide, and politicians who receive money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or maintain friendly relations with Israel are being interrupted at public meetings.
In addition, politicians running for office, either in local or national congressional elections, are forced to have a position on Palestine, where in the past, you were able to get away without having one. But since the genocide is being livestreamed, contradictions sharpened, this has created a protest movement with multiple fronts across all walks of life. As a result, the government is criminalizing support for Palestine because it cannot stop the movement, and wants to spark fear in those who are looking to join.
Abdallah’s and the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike is part of a larger movement led by young people who will no longer tolerate how our government treats Palestinians. Their protest highlights a historic trend of the anti-war movement that dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, where hunger strikes served as a form of protest to stop the Vietnam War. Supporters of the hunger strike took to social media to call the students courageous for their sacrifice for a humane cause, and the students pledged to continue their fight for a free Palestine.
Author’s note: I reached out to UCLA for comments regarding Maya and its plans for divestment, but I have not received a response. On May 7th, while reporting on the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike, I reached out to the CSULB president but was also met with silence.