Pro-Palestinian students at Brown University began a hunger strike last week and issued demands to the school, but President Christina Paxson has basically told them to pound sand. These students have lost the plot. Do they think this is what they’re supposed to be doing with their time at the Ivy League school?

UPDATE: Brown President Christina Paxson has informed the hunger strikers that she will not meet their demands.

At the end of her email to the students, she “highlighted University mental health and well-being resources.” https://t.co/XewA9Tf0aQ pic.twitter.com/d0B7CilAEU

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 3, 2024

From the Brown Daily Herald:

President Paxson refuses to meet hunger strike demands

President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 has declined to meet the demands of 19 student protestors who began a hunger strike Friday afternoon, according to a letter Paxson sent to the demonstrators and reviewed by The Herald.

On Friday, the protestors announced that the strike would continue until the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, “hears and considers a divestment resolution” in the ongoing Israel-Palestine war during their meetings that begin next week.

In her letter to the protestors, Paxson wrote that the first step toward requesting divestment “is not a Corporation resolution, but rather to submit a proposal to the Advisory Committee on University Resource Management.”

Paxson also wrote that she will “not commit to bring a resolution to the February 2024 Corporation meeting or any future meeting of the Corporation.”

The strikers did not immediately respond to request for comment. University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald that the administration’s “understanding at this time is that students will continue their hunger strike.”

This behavior isn’t cultish at all.

“We breathe together. Stop the occupation.”

Brown University students sing a hymn in support of 19 students hunger striking until the university board agrees to discuss divestment from Israel. pic.twitter.com/FbtLjT3JiQ

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 3, 2024

This is just more of the same BDS activism we have been seeing on campuses for years.

WLNE News reported:

Brown University students go on hunger strike for divestment from Israel

Brown University shared Friday that a Palestinian and Jewish-led coalition of 19 students began a hunger strike.

Following several student-lead actions last fall, students are once again calling upon the university to completely divest its involvement from companies profiting from the genocide in Gaza…

The coalition released the following demands:

As we approach week 17 of Israel’s military assault on Gaza, Brown University remains invested in the genocide despite the mounting calls of thousands of Brown students, grad workers, faculty, and alumni for divestment. The Brown Corporation must heed these calls and promote an immediate ceasefire and a lasting peace by divesting its endowment from companies that enable and profit from the genocide in Gaza and broader Israeli occupation.

We, a Palestinian- and Jewish-led coalition of 19 students, will refuse food until the following demands are met: (1) Brown University President Christina Paxson and Chancellor Sam Mencoff must publicly commit to including a divestment resolution on the agenda of the Brown Corporation’s February 8/9 meeting; this resolution must be based on the Brown University Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices (now the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management) 2020 report“To Recommend Divestment from Companies that Facilitate the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territory.” (2) The administration must permit representatives from the Brown Divest Coalition to present the case for divestment to the Corporation. (3) Upon the fulfillment of demands one and two, the Brown Corporation must publicly commit to conduct a formal vote on this resolution as a full body in the presence of the coalition representatives. We will hunger strike until these demands are met in full.

Featured image via Twitter video.

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