In the two years since October 7, the anti-Israel campus group known as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has dwindled from a force to a farce. From occupying buildings, disrupting classes, and setting up encampments, it now resorts to hunger strikes. Not long ago, SJP members were threatening to take over every campus until their demands were met. Now, they threaten to harm themselves if they don’t get their way.
National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) has been promoting hunger strikes since the beginning of the year. Students at Stanford University and five California State University campuses dutifully followed orders and played hunger artist during the summer.
During the Fall semester, the University of Houston SJP chapter began what it called the “Sumud Hunger Strike” on October 15, claiming unconvincingly that it went on for 36 days. At the University of Houston, Clear Lake campus, SJP began a hunger strike on November 3. Ball State University began one on November 5.
When the “derecognized” SJP chapter at the University of Rochester began a hunger strike protest on campus in October, I had to get a closer look.
News 10 WHEC broke the story on October 14 when it sent a team to the River Campus for reactions to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. The Hamas fan club there had been screaming for a ceasefire since Gazans broke the last one on October 7, so one might have expected jubilation from the university’s undergraduate resistance. If there was any, the WHEC reporters didn’t find it. Or maybe they didn’t look. In fact, on a campus of 12,000 students, WHEC chose to interview two members of the university’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter who were far from jubilant. They pouted and expressed their frustration at “the unlawful occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank” and “the apartheid laws that govern Israel.”
The real news was buried in the seventh paragraph of the online article: “A hunger strike is planned on the University of Rochester campus on Wednesday by a separate group, Students of [sic] Justice in Palestine.” Things are not looking good for SJP when the press can’t even get the name right.
At the more SJP-friendly Rochester Beacon, former University of Rochester student Narm Nathan reported the next day that, “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 SJP UR Instagram account announced that the hunger strikers would hold “daily pickets” in the morning and afternoon:
I couldn’t resist, so I went to the afternoon picket session on the first day of the protest. I was expecting a fiery mob and thought I would have to watch and record it from afar, but instead I found just ten hapless looking protesters. I recognized their flag from the Spring 2024 “Gaza Solidarity” encampment at the university.
It was only the first day, so I overlooked the fact that none appeared underfed. Two of them took turns interviewing each other. One attempted unsuccessfully to fly a kite. Another tried to convince me that, with perseverance, SJP could force the university to “divest from the genocidal state of Israel.”
It was hard to believe that this was the same group that had sown chaos at the University of Rochester since October 7, and even brought that chaos to the Rochester Institute of Technology (where I teach) on November 13, 2023, but I recognized several of them.
By the third day, the protesters had cut back on their hours, eliminating the morning “pickets.” Perhaps they interfered with breakfast.
By the fourth day, they had cut the weekend “pickets.” Apparently, every hunger artist needs a rest.
I took this to be good news, and when I went to observe on day 5, I found only three of the ten I had seen on the first day. The hunger strike was turning out to be a spectacular failure.
Then on the sixth day, the SJP UR Instagram account announced dramatically that the protest site was being moved “across from Wallis Hall,” which is the main administration building where the president’s office and all the top university officials’ offices are located. It was intended to be an escalation, even though the new site was barely 100 yards from the original site.
On the seventh day, SJP UR posted a video (labeled Day 8) in which three members wrapped in keffiyehs stand in front of Wallis Hall spouting Hamas propaganda and issuing their demands that the university divest from Israel. National SJP immediately put the video on its Instagram page, amplifying SJP UR’s message.
The next day, SJP UR announced that it was holding a Friday “rally” across from Wallis Hall. “MEET OUR DEMANDS,” the message shouted.
I went to the Friday evening “rally” and found fewer than 20 protesters. They held signs decrying Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal and chanted “Globalize the Intifada.” It was a far cry from the mob that set up an “encampment” on the lawn in front of the library in the Spring 2024 semester.
And then on Monday October 27, SJP UR abruptly announced that its hunger strike was over. The 7-page announcement, which includes a timeline from start to finish, is two parts melodrama, one part admonition.
“We endured hunger, emotional and physical exhaustion, and deteriorating health conditions – all while the university refused to meet with us, acknowledge our existence … For 12 days we put our bodies on the line, willing to risk irreversible harm – including long-term neurological damage – just to be heard,” the statement emotes. It continues, “We lost an average of 13 pounds per striker while experiencing progressively worsening symptoms, such as chest pains, heart palpitations, orthostatic hypotension, imbalance, and blurred vision.”
The message ends with a warning: “We assure this university that we will never rest until the concerns of its Palestinian and anti-genocide students are acknowledged and addressed.”
As they rest over the holiday break, SJP students at the University of Rochester and elsewhere are likely planning their next escapades for the Spring 2026 semester. If their slide into irrelevance continues at this rate, they’ll probably hold their breath until their universities promise to meet their demands.
Chief IPT Political Correspondent A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Milstein fellow. This article has been cross-posted with the author’s permission from IPT News.
Edmund Carey says
These universities are supposed to give a hoot that their students are refusing to eat? Students refusing to eat are simply exercising a right. Whether they realize it or not no one is looking after them. They aren’t being baby-sat. They aren’t in kindergarten, anymore.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Precisely! They are mostly adults and can make their own decisions. Also, government need not finetune public policy according to their whims
Edward Amos Brandwein says
Let them starve themselves TO DEATH!!
somehistory says
When a person begins losing weight on a diet, it’s mostly water. It takes time for fat to give up and leave.
“irreversible damage”…Someone must have deprived them when they were too young to choose what and when to eat, because their thinking and morals have been “damaged.” Going without food (and I seriously doubt that they did….much like the pretend fasting of muzzies) for a few days doesn’t do much damage. As long as they drink water, they’ll be okay for awhile. And, I seriously doubt that any of them went without food. Now had they been able and allowed to hold a Jew in custody, he would have been denied.
Since first hearing that people go on “hunger strikes,” I have always thought, “how stupid.” The hungry one is the one suffering. A child refusing to eat may hurt the parents, but adults sitting on the grass and saying they have not eaten is very imbecilic.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
That’s dieting that self-identifies as a hunger strike. Let those SJP activists go on their hunger strike as long as they want. They’ll be a lot healthier in the end. Oh, and any more of those acts of intimidating Jewish students, and their hineys should be tossed into the slammer
James Lincoln says
While on active – duty Navy as a squadron flight surgeon, I remember taking care of a couple of prisoners that were in the brig on an aircraft carrier.
For some reason, they decided to go on a manipulative “hunger strike”.
I had the MP Marine guards order up some delicious freshly baked pizza – with a wonderful aroma – to consume within close eyesight of the prisoners.
Suffice it to say, the hunger strike did not last long…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Brilliant thinking, James!
Big Dude says
In the event that they starve themselves to death, I hereby offer to donate (gladly) money for their coffins. I promise to ask my friends to write a composition on their noble efforts, hoping that this form of shahada becomes very popular in those circles. I can’t express how happy I am thinking about this good deed, this “mitzvah.” Reading this article truly ushered in a joyous holiday season. Now to look for the appropriate shahada shrouds Does anyone know how big they were when they died and, more importantly, what color their shrouds should have been? Is Christmas green a suitable color?
Westman says
It seems that university grade inflation is accompanied by a similar delusion of importance. It’s almost laughable that these “protesters” will graduate in time to see their expected plumb employment turn into a mirage as AI makes an Ivy League degree as valuable as its parchment.
Yes, we remember the arrogant student writers who tried to impress JW with their erudition and condescension. Now a machine will be more intelligent than them. They will be drowning in Karma. Life is about values and real relationships of which the universities were bankrupt.
When there are 20 people after one remaining position you desperately need, please impress your prospective employer with how you voluntarily “suffered” for Hamas terrorists.
Jerry says
Dieting like these students are is all well and good. But I think the bigger point, if I must say so myself, is that when all the PAID protesters are gone, we’re left with the real number of goofballs that object to Israel enough to protest. Another victory for Donald Trump.
skeptiker says
Hoffentlich ziehen die ihren “Hungerstreik” bis zum bitteren Ende durch.
Wer wird euch vermissen? An “Nutzlichen Idioten” herrscht kein Mangel.