A group of students at Princeton University is continuing a hunger strike as a show of solidarity with residents of Gaza. They say they’re willing to continue the strike until the charges against 15 protesters are dropped — and their demands for the university to divest from Israel are met.
A spokesperson for Princeton University said university officials have been in touch with protest organizers to support their freedom of expression. The school also says it has physicians monitoring the health of the students during their hunger strike.
Meanwhile, the president of Rutgers University is defending the school’s decision to meet eight out of 10 demands of pro-Palestinian student protesters at Rutgers–New Brunswick.
“I am confident in our decisions. They allowed us to maintain a safe and controlled environment, to protect Rutgers students and Rutgers property, and to assure that our students’ academic progress — taking finals and completing the semester — was not impeded,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said at the school’s Board of Governors’ meeting on Monday.
Not everyone agrees. Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union), said, “There’s a lot of money appropriated by the state of New Jersey for Rutgers. Don’t you think the taxpayers have a right to weigh in on this issue? I mean, these are pretty simple concepts. This isn’t necessarily about the war, because some can legitimately argue that Israel was over the top in terms of its response. That’s a legitimate discussion. But what’s not legitimate is the university kowtowing to students and making no demands themselves.”
