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Princeton University students launch hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

Participants said they will only drink water until the administration meets with students to discuss their demands for disclosure, divestment and a “full academic and cultural boycott of Israel.”

Students on the campus of Princeton University on April 25 after tents set up by protesters were taken down voluntarily. Two graduate students were arrested for trespassing.
Students on the campus of Princeton University on April 25 after tents set up by protesters were taken down voluntarily. Two graduate students were arrested for trespassing.Read moreJesse Bunch / Staff

Princeton University students have launched a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who don’t have drinkable water or food.

“The Israeli occupation has deliberately blocked access to basic necessities to engineer a dire famine for the two million residents of Gaza,” the Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment group wrote in a news release Sunday night.

“Since the announcement on October 9th by the Israeli Defense Minister prohibiting the entry of food, fuel, and electricity into the Gaza strip, Israel has systematically obstructed and limited access to vital aid for Palestinians in Gaza, even intentionally destroying existing cropland,” the release said.

“The consequences of the unprecedented famine, created and maintained by Israel, will devastate Gaza’s children for generations to come and cannot be tolerated any longer.”

A growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration, according to the World Health Organization.

The group said they were drawing from the tradition of Palestinian political prisoners going on saltwater-only hunger strikes in Israeli prisons since 1968. Its hunger strike is in response to the administration’s refusal to divest from Israel, it said.

Participants said they will only drink water until the administration meets with students to discuss their demands for disclosure, divestment and a “full academic and cultural boycott of Israel.”

And the administration, they say, must grant complete amnesty from all criminal and disciplinary charges for those participating in a “peaceful sit-in” and reverse all campus bans and evictions of students.

Princeton University officials were not available for comment Sunday night.