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Members of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Rochester have launched a hunger strike, renewing their calls for the university to recognize the genocide in Gaza and sever its alleged ties to the Israeli war effort and settlement movement.
The strike follows last week’s events, when the University of Rochester’s Hillel hosted a vigil honoring both those lost in the war and the hostages held by Hamas following the events of Oct. 7. Palestinian students, through UR’s Muslim Students Association and Jewish Voice for Peace, had also planned an event for the same day, which was rescheduled for Oct. 8. Students say the event was planned before the university attempted to cancel it over safety and security concerns for Jewish students. UR Hillel and Students for Israel did not respond to the Beacon’s requests for comment.
UR SJP Wednesday emailed university administrators, announcing the strike and outlining a list of demands that include a public acknowledgement of the suffering in Gaza.
“University of Rochester leaders did receive a mass email this morning from a generic Students for Justice in Palestine address indicating a hunger strike and list of demands,” says Sara Miller, UR spokesperson. “University leaders do not know who is behind this email and will not be responding. Students for Justice in Palestine is not a recognized group or chapter at the University of Rochester.”
An event rescheduled
A vigil to honor Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza was first planned by UR’s Muslim Students Association and Jewish Voice for Peace—a Jewish, anti-Zionist student organization—roughly a week before Oct. 7, with SJP co-sponsoring the event as an outside organization. According to the university’s guidelines for activity registration, external organizations are allowed to co-sponsor events, and should be noted in the event registration.
The vigil, hosted by the university’s Interfaith Chapel, was approved and publicized for 48 hours, students say, before being cancelled without communication from UR administration.
“Our grief is being politicized. Our mourning is seen as dangerous,” says Aleena Ressas, a Palestinian student at UR. “Palestinian pain, overall, instead of compassion, is met with suspicion. And we’re constantly forced to defend our humanity and our existence.”
News of the vigil was made public on each organization’s social media platform before being amplified by @UofRJews on X. The now-suspended account, representing the university’s Jewish alumni, described the event as a “UR administration-approved anti-Jewish hate rally on October 7th.”
First created in January, the account—described as current and former UR faculty, staff, and students ridding the university of anti-Zionism and anti-semitism—made over 3,800 tweets before being suspended last week. The account called out university officials, including Hein Goemans, professor and Thomas Fleischman, director of undergraduate studies for alleged anti-Jewish and anti-semitic views.
It is unclear whether the account was an institutional or personal account, as an archive of the account does not state its views as independent. According to UR’s guidelines on social media accounts, personal channels are asked to clarify that all views are shared as an individual. (UR’s Miller did not respond to a question about the account.)
In years past, Palestinian students and Students for Justice in Palestine have hosted a variety of events on campus—from vigils and protests to educational events.
“I’ve had multiple educational events that have been canceled by the university because they had things written in Arabic on the flyers, because they had the word Intifada written somewhere on a flyer, which they also deemed as threatening and not appropriate language,” Aljitawi says.
“There have been multiple times when SJP has been on fliers and no one’s said anything,” says Miller Gentry-Sharp, a Jewish student at the university and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. “Sometimes, you’ll find the pattern is that when Zionists who do not attend this university, nor are they students … (or) affiliated with undergrads at least, when they get wind of it, that’s when those events have been canceled.”
Palestinian students believe their ability to express their identity freely has been thwarted by the university over concerns of Jewish safety and security—a worry, they say, that has not been extended to them.
“The university has never really spoken or made any clear stance or incentive to try to foster a better campus environment for Palestinian students,” says Sarah Aljitawi, a Palestinian student at UR. “I think any effort that has ever been made has always come from professors. It’s never been the university that has acknowledged this or tried to help.
A February event where Palestinian students attempted to foster dialogue with signs saying “I am Palestinian. Ask me anything” was surrounded by members of the university’s Wilson Commons Student Activities, Aljitawi says, to the extent that students felt uncomfortable speaking to her.
“I just feel like it consistently sends messaging to students, especially Palestinian students, that the university is completely on board with criminalizing advocacy for Palestine, criminalizing Palestinian students, saying that when we speak up or when we do something, it’s dangerous,” says Aljitawi. “It just feels deeply racially motivated and Islamophobic to constantly be accusing a certain student organization or student group of violence or being threatening.”
Standards of self-expression
Like on other campuses nationwide, pro-Palestinian activism at UR gained significant attention in the last couple of years, with a Gaza solidarity encampment in spring 2024 and a series of sit-ins and protests in the final weeks of the 2023-24 academic year. Last fall, “wanted” posters on campus directly named faculty and university leadership for alleged complicity in the war in Gaza, which led to the expulsion of four students who were charged with felony criminal mischief. The months since have seen multiple students suspended on campus for their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.
That activism on campus, Aljitawi claims, has resulted in waves of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic sentiment directed at her and other Palestinian students. Despite filing repeated bias incident reports with the university, she says she has not received any communication or resolution from administrators.
“There’s a professor that came up to us once during a protest and called us Nazis and terrorists. I’ve had a professor send me an email saying a lot of really anti-Palestinian racist things like ‘Your struggle can never end for it is your identity,'” Aljitawi explains. “I’ve had students come up to me and call me a terrorist and say certain things like ‘You guys deserve what’s happening to you.'”
In November 2024, AI-generated posters depicting Gaza as a war-torn Lego set were distributed at the Eastman Student Living Center. According to Ressas, the university never acknowledged the incident.
“This is obviously anti-Palestinian racism,” says Ressas. “The university says nothing, no investigation, no condemnation, just silence, which speaks volumes. That tells us that our pain doesn’t matter.”
When students speak in Arabic or wear the Palestinian keffiyeh, Aljitawi adds, they are met with suspicion and criminalization over how their expression will be interpreted by Jewish students who may feel unsafe. To her, that places a boundary on what notions of self-expression are deemed acceptable.
“It just shows deeply how ingrained it is to consider to tie anything that is related to Palestine with criminalization,” says Aljitawi. “What is political about this situation is that Palestinians exist. Our existence is political. You’re telling me to my face that me existing as a person and claiming my heritage is the issue.”
As a Jewish student on campus, Gentry-Sharp claims he and others have joined Jewish Voice for Peace after feeling disillusioned with Hillel’s programming. UR Hillel serves as the primary space for students to explore Judaism and Jewish life on campus.
“I think that there are a lot of very valuable voices, including Jewish and Israeli voices, who are deeply critical of Israel, who support measures taken against the current Israeli regime, and measures to increase freedom, liberty, and self-determination for the people in Gaza,” says Gentry-Sharp. “Those people’s voices are not welcome in Hillel.”
He says he has worked to provide a space for students interested in Jewish life to observe the Sabbath and practice Jewish holidays, whether on or off campus.
“There are Jewish people that exist across a range of political beliefs and persuasions. Many, many Jewish people, and I know a lot of them, believe that Palestinians have been historically mistreated, that they deserve the right to return to their ancestral homeland and live there under equal rights,” adds Gentry-Sharp. “What JVP does is we advocate for that, as many other Palestinian and other voices have done on campus.”
The hunger strike, according to the UR SJP email, is also an expression of solidarity.
“With the privileges that come with being a University of Rochester student, we could not experience even a fraction of the traumatic toll that Gazans are currently facing,” it reads. “Yet, it is still necessary that we physically stand against that starvation campaign—not to sacrifice our education, but to preserve its integrity. We will not eat until all our demands are met.”
Core demands laid by the group include the issuance of a public statement of support and acknowledgement for suffering in Gaza, a student and faculty town hall over free speech, and an adherence to a 2024 recommendation by the university’s Ethical Investment Advisory Committee that UR avoid direct investments in securities issued by companies selling goods or services that support military operations that violate U.S. or international law.
The news of thousands of Palestinians returning to Gaza City following the ceasefire, for Ressas, comes with a caveat: that there is still work to be done.
“The occupation is still alive. Gaza is still an open-air prison, and Israel has made it clear that they will dictate every part of Palestinian life,” says Ressas. “For the first time in two years, we’re allowed to grieve without being overwhelmed by more bloodshed … the whole mourning process comes now.”
Narm Nathan is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a member of the Oasis Project’s inaugural cohort.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
This sentence makes no sense, Candace Rubin:
“Israel was not occupying Gaza prior to October 7, because Gaza dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel and Jews.”
A hunger strike until…..one gets hungry. And yes there is still work to be done. That said, progress is being made. Hopefully at some point we can celebrate the end of an era. That opportunity exists, now more than ever. Instead of more demonstration one might want to do something positive to assist in that effort. What will those individuals who demonstrate do with that opportunity? I was advised not to worry. Our college students, those who know all, will find another issue to embrace, another reason for a hunger strike. I keep forgetting they are STUDENTS and still learning.
Student protests such as this probably bear a role in the election of Trump. The student protests against the Vietnam War were quite understandable, since young men were being drafted. Nonetheless, it began the exodus of the working class from the Democratic Party, eventually giving us first Nixon, then Reagan.
The student protests during spring of 2024 likewise stoked class and racial resentment. Why weren’t these privileged kids in the Ivy League in class? Why were they wasting the educational opportunities denied to students who could only afford community colleges? The alienated voters were turned off to the Democrats, and many didn’t bother to vote.
I doubt that many of these students know anything about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Israel was not occupying Gaza prior to October 7, because Gaza dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel and Jews. Moreover, there are hundreds of thousands dying in Sudan, a place few are even aware of. If Black Lives matter, Sudan should warrant our attention.