CSULB students on hunger strike as Gazans face mass starvation

For more than two months, Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza. Now, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing starvation as food rations are exhausted, students across the California State University system, including seven at Long Beach, are on a hunger strike, demanding the system divest from defense contractors.

“Symbolically, the encampments last spring mirrored a fraction of the conditions with the refugee camps and tents that Palestinians were forced into,” said Marcus Bode, 22. "The hunger strike now is a symbolic way of bringing that home."

Bode’s hunger strike began on Monday alongside six of his classmates as well as more than a dozen students at Sacramento State, San Francisco State and San Jose State. Mid-week, students from CSU East Bay and Dominguez Hills joined the movement, bringing the total number of students on hunger strike to more than 30.

The students say they are taking safety precautions such as drinking water with electrolytes and having their vitals checked twice per day.

For the first four days of the strike, Bode and Aurora Dorsett, 22, said they felt better than they expected. Thursday night, however, Dorsett said she nearly passed out when she stood up too quickly. And Friday morning, Bode said he awoke feeling drained and “very out of it” with aching joints.

Dorsett added that she has been experiencing muscle cramps and that her immune system has weakened.

“The brain fog is bad, which is deeply unfortunate as its finals currently,” Dorsett said. “As students, I think we would all much rather be focusing our energy on studying and preparing to end the semester off on a good note, but because of our university's complicity in the genocide, we don't have that luxury.”

Israeli forces have blocked aid from crossing into Gaza since March 2, according to the United Nations’ World Food Programme. All 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed on March 31 when wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out. That same week, WFP distributed the last of its food parcels — with two weeks of food rations — to Palestinians, the agency announced.

On April 25, WFP announced it delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition,” WFP wrote, adding that food prices have ballooned 1,400% compared to pre-ceasefire. “There are serious nutrition concerns for vulnerable people, including children under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and elderly people.”

More than 116,000 metric tons of food, which is enough to feed one million people for up to four months, is positioned near the border and ready to be distributed, according to WFP.

Like the protesters last year, strikers are demanding their universities, and the CSU system as a whole, divest from defense contractors such as Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who they say are “complicit … in the actions of the Israeli government."

Earlier this week, the CSU Chancellor’s Office bluntly said the hunger strike will not have an impact, stating “the CSU will not be altering its investment policies.”

But the strikers will continue with their protest, citing the progress seen at San Francisco State, which sold its investments in arms makers Lockheed Martin, Leonardo and Palantir Technologies last year after talks with student protesters.

The administration at CSULB did not comment on its investment policy when questioned on Friday but data from a public records request indicates the university’s investment holdings in at least two defense contractors has declined over the past five years.

In 2020, the market value of CSULB’s holdings in Northrop Grumman and Raytheon totaled $481,862, or 0.45%, of its total assets. Those figures increased to $821,796, or 0.59%, in 2021, before the university sold off its Raytheon stocks. As of June 30 of last year, the university’s Northrop Grumman holdings were $128,605, or 0.07% of its total assets.

It’s unclear if the university is invested in any other companies with ties to defense or Israel.

According to CSULB spokesperson Jamarr Johnson, Boeing was “not held directly in the portfolio over that time period.”

The records request, submitted by the Watchdog on May 8, 2024, also sought information related to partnerships with such companies that could include scholarships, grants, internships or other ties. The university has yet to provide any information regarding that request.

The university’s own website, however, outlines various ties to Boeing specifically via The Boeing Partnership.

The defense contractor created the Boeing Business Scholarship with the 49er Foundation and is also a corporate partner for the College of Business Administration, providing scholarships and internships for students as well as supporting the different centers, programs and organizations, according to the CSULB website.

“CSULB is one of 16 universities nationwide and the only university in California to be selected for this partnership,” the website reads.

The Chancellor’s Office said it respects diverse beliefs and personal convictions but urged students to “consider forms of expression that do not jeopardize their health and well-being.”

CSULB striker Dorsett pointed out the irony of the statement when contrasted with the violence faced by protesters last year at campuses across the country, including an incident at UCLA on May 1, 2024, when a pro-Israeli group attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment as police looked on.

“There’s been some very intense and violent repression of student activists,” Dorsett said, adding that she sees no choice but to take action. “It’s dangerous to fight, but it’s even more dangerous not to fight and risk letting fascism and Zionism completely take hold over this country.”

Dorsett and Bode denounced CSULB’s “Time, Place, Manner” policy, which regulates on-campus free speech, demonstrations and rallies. Many students and faculty members say the policy is simply a means to silence — and punish — them. In September of last year, five faculty members accused the university of targeting them with policy violation warnings for their participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations early in the year.

A hunger strike, however, is a quiet, personal form of protest that the university cannot push back against, Dorsett said.

“If the administration thinks they can wait for us to lose steam and give up and just become complacent as they are, they are so sorely mistaken,” Dorsett said. “We have not seen our movement weakening. Instead, more campuses are joining, more students are expressing interest and solidarity with strikers. This is something that's only going to get stronger the longer they wait.”

“This is an indefinite hunger strike,” Bode added. “Even if students are fainting and end up needing to seek medical attention, other students will be there to replace them.”