17 students go on hunger strike at Princeton after graduation ceremony disrupted by protests in Gaza

More than a dozen Princeton University students went on a hunger strike Friday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as a wave of protests against Israel’s war in the territory continues on U.S. college campuses.

“Our hunger strike is in response to the administration’s refusal to engage with our demands to secede and withdraw from Israel. We refuse to be silenced by the intimidation and repression tactics used by the University administration. We stand together in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We dedicate our bodies to their liberation,” one of the attackers said in a video statement posted on Princeton’s Israeli apartheid website Divest X account on Friday.

The strikers added that they draw their protest from the tradition of Palestinian political protesters who have been holding hunger strikes in Israeli prisons with only salt water since 1968.

The group said fourteen students went on hunger strike on Friday morning, and that number has risen to 17, with 15 continuing the strike into a third day.The Princetonian Journal, information newspaper for university students.

The group also invited members of the Princeton community to join the hunger strike, asking them to sign up for solidarity fasts that will last 24 hours, or to sign up for a full hunger strike.

The strikers are demanding that the university meet with students to discuss their demands for “disclosure, divestment and cultural boycott of Israel.”

They also demand a complete amnesty from all criminal and disciplinary charges against the participants of the peaceful strike, as well as the withdrawal of all gangs and evictions of students.

“Our demands are not that intense,” Dawid Chmielewski, one of the strikers, told the daily. “They are simply to call a meeting and grant amnesty to students who have been arrested and are facing disciplinary proceedings.”

A group of activists reposted on X claiming that as the hunger strike enters its third day, the university administration is denying strikers tents, leaving them huddled under umbrellas.

The group added that counter-demonstrators were pushing away their banners, while claiming that public security officers had “repeatedly harassed them” and denied them rest.

University spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill wrote in a statement to: The Princetonian Journal that Melissa Marks, director of medical services at University Health Services (UHS), visited the strikers on Friday and Sunday and was in contact with one of the doctors monitoring the group.

“We care about their well-being,” Ms. Morrill wrote.

The strikers also said they had a medical team on duty 24 hours a day, were screened for risk factors before the strike began, and their vital signs were measured twice a day.

While Ms. Morill did not specifically address the strikers’ demands, she added that “university administrators are always willing to meet with students to discuss their ideas and concerns if they request such conversations through channels available to all members of the community.”

She said the university on Friday offered protesters the use of a tent in McCosh Quadrangle.

The hunger strike comes after 13 people were arrested last week following a “brief” occupation of Clio Hall on the university’s campus in New Jersey.

Five undergraduate students, six graduate students, one postdoctoral fellow and one unaffiliated person were arrested for trespassing and expelled from campus, according to a statement from President Christopher Eisgruber. Officials say the students also face suspension or expulsion.

Officials called the incident “completely unacceptable” and said they “will continue to work to ensure that all members of the community feel welcome and able to thrive on this campus.”

The 13 arrested protesters issued a joint statement saying the email sent by the president to the entire Princeton community was “misleading” and “sensationalized our role in a peaceful sit-in protest.”

“We now face academic suspension, expulsion and further criminal charges for peacefully protesting in solidarity with Palestine,” they wrote.

Princeton is one of many universities across the United States where protests and demonstrations against the war in Gaza continue to take place, and more than 2,300 people have been arrested on campuses across the country.

In response to the protests, universities also began limiting the number of graduation ceremonies.

Columbia University canceled its graduation ceremony this month in favor of “smaller school ceremonies.” As a university representative said in an interview with NBC News, the main reason for this decision was safety concerns.

The University of Southern California also announced it will not hold its main commencement ceremony next month following protests on its Los Angeles campus.

Other universities have also decided to hold graduation ceremonies, including the University of Michigan, where students on Saturday demonstrated solidarity with Gaza, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans.

Independent contacted Princeton University for comment.