The Jew Haters, the lovers of Hamas, the bigots at Stanford are ending a hunger strike. Who cares? These are mentally ill students needing therapy along with a nutritious meal. They do not need to pretend they are college students.
“But past the main quad, Stanford’s White Plaza is a more somber scene, where students on a hunger strike for Gaza gather every day past 6 p.m. and security guards frequently monitor.
Nearly 40 Stanford University students and faculty have participated in the hunger strike since May 12, demanding the school divest from companies like Lockheed Martin and drop new restrictions on protestors among other demands.
Joining other campuses nationwide, the students began the hunger strike to call attention to violence in Gaza after the war in Palestine reignited on Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people.”
The good news is that Trump is cutting off Federal funds to this radical, anti-freedom school. Professors on the hunger strike need to be fired. Anything less shows Stanford support of keeping the mentally ill on campus and in the classroom.
As hunger strike concludes, Stanford students dismayed by university response
Monthlong protest sought to bring attention to war in Gaza, get university to divest from companies that profit from conflict
| by Lisa Moreno, Palo Alto Online, 6/4/25 https://www.paloaltoonline.com/stanford-university/2025/06/04/as-hunger-strike-concludes-stanford-students-dismayed-by-university-response/ |
As Stanford University prepares for its 2025 graduation, students can be seen wearing red sashes and formal-wear on sunny days, posing for photos with friends throughout the campus.
But past the main quad, Stanford’s White Plaza is a more somber scene, where students on a hunger strike for Gaza gather every day past 6 p.m. and security guards frequently monitor.
Nearly 40 Stanford University students and faculty have participated in the hunger strike since May 12, demanding the school divest from companies like Lockheed Martin and drop new restrictions on protestors among other demands.
Joining other campuses nationwide, the students began the hunger strike to call attention to violence in Gaza after the war in Palestine reignited on Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
In its most deadly war, over 44,000 thousand Palestinians, who are mostly women and children, have been killed by Israeli troops, according to the Associated Press. United Nations estimates that 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times.
Protesters have taken turns consuming zero calories for seven days at a time during the strike, only drinking water in hopes that the university would negotiate with students.
Their five demands include divestment “from companies that profit from Israel’s siege of Gaza,” dropping the charges of 12 Stanford students who protested by occupying the former university president’s office, signing a national letter denouncing President Donald Trump’s “federal assaults on academic freedom” and rescinding free speech restrictions like registration requirements to protest in public spaces.
Since the strike began, Stanford officials have responded twice, stating that the university would not negotiate and that students should consider forms of protest that “do not jeopardize their health.”
“We respect the rights of students to express their views in ways within the limits of our time, place, and manner rules. … If you do continue with your hunger strike, we strongly encourage you to take precautions to support your health,” wrote Vice Provost for Student Affairs Michele Rasmussen in an email to students on May 12.
The messages did not shake protestors who have grown less hopeful about University action and more optimistic about peer-support.
“Community help is everything,” said first-year Stanford student Owen Martin, who stood in Stanford’s White Plaza. “Clearly Stanford doesn’t care about us starving. What they do care about is their image.”
Martin participated in the hunger strike for seven days straight at the beginning of the movement, in response to quick “deterioration” of Gaza.
“At this phase of the genocide, its become increasingly brutal for people in Gaza without a proportional media and University response,” he said.
While this is the first time students have participated in a hunger strike against the war in Gaza, it is not the first time students have taken action, occupying White Memorial Plaza.
On Oct. 20, 2023, the students set out with tents and banners in-hand to set up camp in the Plaza fostering student activism through study sessions, community engagement and informational events for over 100 days. Months later on April 25, 2024, camped out again establishing People’s University for Gaza, a local chapter of the Popular University for Gaza, a movement that calls on students to set up encampments to demand freedom for Palestinians.
But as the hunger strike comes to an end ahead of summer break, students feel that their protests have garnered more community support and attention than ever.
“This is not the action of a few individuals,” said a student protestor named Alex, who did not provide his last name due to fear of retaliation. “We have been able to galvanize a student body and create a changing climate. People are talking.”
Campus indigenous, Asian, Muslim and Jewish students groups have shown consistent support for the protestors, Alex said, like Stanford’s Jewish Voice for Peace that will help host the hunger strikers’ final event on Thursday.
Protestors will break their fasts with the community on June 5 at 7:30 p.m. in White Plaza, according to a social media post, and honor the lives of those who have died in Palestine.
Although their fast will end, students will continue to fight the “university’s silence.”
“I just hope they have some sort of moment that sparks their consciousness,” Martin said. “That’s what we all hope for.”
