US: UCLA student hospitalised during hunger strike for Gaza

Middle East Eye

20-05-2025

A University of California, Los Angeles, student was hospitalised after a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are on the brink of famine after Israel implemented an 11-week aid blockade of food, water, and humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Palestinian Lebanese film student, Maya Abdullah, 23, ended up in hospital on 18 May after she fainted on the ninth day of her hunger strike, while seeking to pressure her university to divest from Israel.
'On day nine of my hunger strike, I unexpectedly passed out at my school and had to be rushed to the hospital,' she said in a video on Instagram.
'Before I passed out, I was walking in a protest, and I felt light-headed, but I hadn't felt I was going to pass out. When we got to school, I walked for 10 mins before I hit the ground. I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately. When they found me, I was choking on my vomit. I didn't have anything in my stomach, so it was just bile. At the hospital, they found my resting heart rate 40 percent higher than a normal person's. They were scared I had done some damage to my heart.'
Abdullah said that UCLA administration did not respond to notice of her hospitalisation. She said that being hospitalised and not having a conversation with the administration was 'disheartening'.
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But she believed that her journey was one step towards students achieving the student's goals.
'I think it's a step towards divestment. It's a bunch of many different things.'
'Deafening silence of indifference'
At Stanford University, there are currently 24 students and three faculty members on hunger strike - 15 of them started their strike on 12 May, while another 12 joined on 19 May.
A hunger striker and organiser who did not wish to be named said that the strike was going better than he had anticipated.
'I've been feeling strange. I've been feeling dizzy. The most difficult days were four and five. Before we started, we were concerned by how difficult it would be. But it hasn't been as difficult as a lot of us feared it would be,' he told Middle East Eye.
The hunger strikers have been holding a community gathering every evening on campus and he said that having community members who were supportive had 'strengthened his will'.
He explained that he had started the strike to bring attention to the hunger and starvation in Gaza to the administration and student body. He said they did the same for those living in tents in Rafah through the encampments last year.
Famine imminent in Gaza if Israel doesn't lift blockade, hunger monitor warns Read More »
Students' health and vitals were monitored daily to evaluate whether it was safe to continue, as fasting affected everyone differently.
He said that on Monday evening, the administration had stopped by the White Plaza, where students were congregating, and told the students the event was in violation of university rules and they might threaten Students for Justice in Palestine, who are organising the hunger strike, with potential disciplinary action.
Assistant professor Natalie Zahr, from the department of psychiatry and behavioural science, released a statement on 12 May about her intentions to join the strike.
'I know words have power, but words feel futile as the slaughter continues to escalate…. So many months of horror. With no end in sight. Still surrounded by a deafening silence of indifference.
'I've stayed awake so many nights thinking about the mothers of Palestine. Especially the mothers. What would I do if my child was hungry? What desperate acts would [I]commit to feed my son, to keep him safe?"
An email sent by the university to students on Tuesday, and seen by MEE, urged the students to 'consider forms of protest that do not endanger your health' and said that 'your request for further engagement on these topics as a condition of ending your hunger strike will not be granted'.
The university did not respond to MEE's request for comment by the time of publication.
Frustration and lack of engagement
Seven students and one staff member are on hunger strike at Yale University. Six students started their hunger strike on 10 May to pressure the university to divest from Israel and in solidarity with people in Gaza. They were joined by a staff member on Wednesday and another undergraduate student on Saturday.
The students have been gathering outside Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcoma (SSS) Hall on campus every day. On Wednesday, dean of students Melanie Boyd threatened the strikers and supporters with disciplinary action and arrest for congregating inside the building, garnering complaints from students, parents, and alumni.
An undergraduate student who is a spokesperson for the hunger strikers and asked to remain anonymous said, 'As a collective, they've lost a total of 70 pounds. They have experienced serious health issues. Some of their glucose levels have been seriously low."
She says they are suffering from other issues like hypertension, nausea and a lack of sleep.
'They have expressed frustration at harassment from the university and a lack of engagement from the administration'
- Spokesperson for hunger strikers at Yale University
'They have expressed frustration at harassment from the university and a lack of engagement from the administration,' she told MEE.
She added they had been touched by the 'incredible shows of solidarity' after the Nakba march on Saturday had gone through the Yale campus, stopped at SSS and was attended by locals and students.
She said that the dean of Yale College, Pericles Lewis, had offered to meet with the students on Thursday.
'We talked for an hour. We asked him to convey our demands for divestment to the president. He kept urging the hunger strikers to stop without respecting or honouring the reasons they were doing it."
The dean told students that Yale president Maurie McInnis wouldn't meet with them because doing so would set a precedent.
"It was very revealing of how the university thinks in terms of cost-benefit calculations, rather than thinking of their students as human beings.'
The university did not respond to MEE's request for comments by the time of publication.
Refusal
More than 30 California State University (CSU) students started a hunger strike on 5 May. Some are still participating, while others have stopped.
The students were also calling for CSU to divest from companies that provide weapons and surveillance technology to Israel, and said they had committed to the hunger strike after calls from students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank.
The students from CSU Long Beach, Sacramento State, and San Jose State were urging CSU to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco State University, which divested last year from weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, data analysis company Palantir, and construction company Caterpillar, following a student Gaza solidarity encampment last spring.
After hunger striking for 12 days, students from CSU Long Beach (CSULB) were able to secure a meeting with university president Jane Conoley and vice president Beth Lesen on Friday.
According to striker Marcus Bode, Conoley refused to end the university's partnership with Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, both in terms of funding and faculty projects.
A statement from CSULB to MEE said: 'President Conoley and Vice President Lesen met last week with those students indicating that they are participating in a hunger strike. President Conoley and Vice President Lesen listened to the students' concerns, shared perspectives, and discussed common ground. During the strike, university representatives have been in touch with the students to check on their health and encourage them to consider choosing from a variety of safer ways to have their voices heard.'
CSULB ended their hunger strike on Friday and will be preparing a strategy for the year ahead.