12 Yale students from the group Hunger Strikers for Palestine (HSP) are refusing to eat as a direct act of protest to the institution’s “complicity in genocide,” according to the HSP. In an April 10 letter to Yale University President Peter Salovey, a coalition of Yale graduate students listed a series of demands to cease the university’s profit from the Israel-Hamas War. “If these demands are not met by the morning of 4/12/24, we will go on a hunger strike,” the letter read.
Yale’s Graduate Students for Palestine (GSP) outlined what actions are necessary to restore ethical investment practices and put an end to the university’s war profiteering.
“1) Make a public statement committing to divest from all weapons manufacturing companies contributing to Israel’s assault on Palestine, and 2) Discuss plans for divestment at the board of Trustees meeting on Saturday, April 20th, and release a public statement acknowledging that the board has done so by 4/12,” an email to The Daily Campus stated.
As of publication, one week has passed since the hunger strike commenced, with Yale’s administration directly refusing to accept GSP’s demands. In an April 17 press release, the university’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) defended the continued investment in arms manufacturing.
“Military weapons manufacturing for authorized sales did not meet the threshold of grave social injury, a prerequisite for divestment, because this manufacturing supports socially necessary uses, such as law enforcement and national security,” ACIR said.
The Yale Ethical Investment Policy bars the institution from supporting domestic assault weapons retailers for exacerbating America’s gun violence crisis. With Yale’s over 348,000 shares in iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF and Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF, large sums Yale’s endowment fund is channeled to defense contractors including Boeing, RTX, and Lockheed Martin — a practice that appears hypocritical in the eyes of many Yalies.
“We here at Yale university have witnessed this ongoing genocide from the comforts of not only the heart of the empire that is funding the military conquest and colonization of Palestine, but from the distance and security provided by the investments of this University with profit from this mass ethnic cleansing,” the April 10 letter stated.
In conjunction with the ongoing hunger strike, daily events of solidarity have established New Haven as an epicenter of pro-Palestinian demonstration. Held at Yale’s Beinecke Plaza, events include letter writing and crane folding activities, a teach-in for the education of the Palestinian condition, and nightly vigils for those killed in the conflict.
Though these efforts have seen widespread support from groups around the state, the Yale administration has been considerably less receptive. At a vigil held on the night of April 15, over twenty police officers dispersed the crowd, with university officials declining to comment on why the forced vacation occurred. On the same day, university officials dismantled a display of bookshelves erected by protestors as part of a “books not bombs” campaign.
Activist groups from the University of Connecticut have supported the demonstrations taking place in New Haven, with the organization UConn Unchain endorsing the upcoming March for a Free Palestine set to take place on April 28 at the New Haven Town Green.
Despite rejection by the ACIR, Yale’s pro-Palestine student groups are steadfast in their resolve to end complicity in profiting from violence.
“We will continue to hunger strike until we receive a direct response to our demands for divestment from President Salovey and the Board of Trustees,” the hunger strikers response to ACIR’s announcement reads.