This op-ed was written by former hunger striker Leyna Vu. She was one of 17 original hunger strikers who protested for USF’s divestment. Vu wrote this op-ed while the strike was still ongoing. The strike ended on April 3. 

For the past two weeks, I have been participating in a hunger strike alongside 17 other USF students to pressure our university’s administration to divest from the genocide happening in Gaza at this very moment. 

For the past two weeks, I have been experiencing constant headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty breathing and more while still trying to attend my classes and internship. 

Related: USF students to go on hunger strike for Palestine: ‘Putting our lives on the line’ – The Oracle

I continued even after it was medically advised for me to stop; however, after my family expressed major concerns for my declining health, I was forced to end my strike. 

I am still currently feeling the effects of the strike days after breaking it, which was an incredibly difficult thing to do as I promised myself I would not give up and give in to what the USF administration wants – for us to be quiet and stop fighting for an end to the genocide.

These were probably the most difficult weeks of my life.

But it was still unparalleled by the atrocities that the Zionist occupation has been inflicting against the people of Palestine for decades. During the weeks that I was debilitated due to the hunger strike, the Zionist regime was once again besieging Al-Shifa hospital at the same exact time. 

I do not know what made me feel sicker, the lack of food for over two weeks or the horrors that I am continuing to witness emerge from what used to be the largest medical complex in Gaza, where hundreds of wounded and hungry Palestinians were taking shelter.

My hunger is incomparable to the people in Gaza because their hunger is for food and life.

To be honest, I was quite disappointed in myself at first for breaking the strike.

But then I realized, this does not mean I will stop fighting for an end to the genocide and a liberated Palestine. The disappointment I had for myself is nothing compared to my disappointment in USF’s lack of action. 

Related: Trouble following USF divestment debate update? Here’s what we know.

Our demands for USF are simple: call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, make the USF investment portfolio open to the public, divest from corporations profiting off the genocide and establish a student oversight committee, where an elected body of student officials could provide input on future investments.

The USF administration likes to pretend they care about their students by trying to say the correct things when they should be doing the right things. 

They will say they care about their students and then watch them starve themselves. They will tell us to take our health seriously while the Student Health and Wellness Center denies our requests for general physical checkups.

Related: USF says it didn’t deny health care to hunger strikers

They would rather tell us to stop fighting for an end to the genocide than do something about it when they have the power and the privilege to really make an impact. 

I truly believed that they might have some piece of a heart left, and at the very least, have a meeting with us. Unfortunately, we were left hungry, empty-handed and disappointed. 

However, an end to the strike does not mean an end to our collective efforts. As the genocide in Gaza continues to escalate, so will our fight to stop it.

It is frightening to see how people care more about students interrupting a meeting at their own university to protest its involvement in a genocide than the actual genocide itself. 

I think it says a lot about a person when they are more bothered by peaceful protests and making a “dramatic scene” during a meeting than the mass slaughter of over 33,000 innocent people, which does not even include the thousands of Palestinians who are still stuck underneath the rubble of the buildings bombed by the Zionist occupation 

This is not a “political issue” that requires a political response. 

This is one of the greatest crimes against humanity that is being carried out with the help of U.S. taxpayer dollars. This is why I think that the argument that universities should not take political stances is invalid. 

USF should not be investing in companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman which supply the weapons that allow for the Zionist occupation to commit war crimes and human rights violations as accused by the United Nations. 

As taxpaying citizens, we are all already complicit in this genocide as the U.S. government continues to send billions of dollars to the occupation every year 

The USF Divest Coalition and many other students who care about the century-long plight of the people of Palestine simply do not want the university that we pay to attend to also be complicit. In the past, universities in the U.S have divested from South African apartheid and even human rights abuses in Sudan 

Related: USF has previously divested from companies. How are the Hunger Strikers’ demands different? – The Oracle

USF can and should divest from the settler-colonial state of Israel and its ongoing human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.