Signs are placed around the stage as San Francisco State University Students for Gaza holds a press conference and rally announcing the university’s divestments from weapons manufacturers at Malcolm X Plaza on the SFSU campus on Aug. 29, 2024. Two dozen pro-Palestinian student activists launched a hunger strike to call on other California State University campuses to divest from companies that supply weapons to Israel. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)
Updated 4:20 p.m. Tuesday
Two dozen pro-Palestinian student activists are on a hunger strike calling for California State University to follow its San Francisco and Sacramento campuses in divesting from companies that supply weapons and surveillance technology to Israel.
The historic deal between activists and officials at San Francisco State University, which came as a result of the pro-Palestinian encampment that was set up on campus last spring, pulled investments from weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, data analysis company and military contractor Palantir, and construction equipment maker Caterpillar.
Twenty-five hunger strikers at the Cal State campuses in San Francisco, Sacramento, San José and Long Beach are calling on San José and Long Beach to follow suit, along with the entire university system. The hunger strike includes seven students at San José State and six in San Francisco.
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They said they are striving to raise awareness of Palestinians’ increasing risk of starvation more than two months into an Israeli blockade that has banned food and aid from entering Gaza, a year and a half after Israel launched its offensive following Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The California State University system remains complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people through millions of dollars invested in defense companies and weapons manufacturers,” said Max Flynt, a member of the General Union of Palestine Students at San Francisco State University. “This act of solidarity aims to shed light on what exactly the people of Gaza are facing, and make it inescapable for the administrations of these universities.”
Max Flynt, an SF State student, makes a public comment during the SF State Foundation Board meeting to discuss investment in weapons manufacturing companies at the Seven Hills Conference Center on campus in San Francisco on Dec. 12, 2024. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)
Under the agreement between student activists and the SF State Foundation, an organization that supports the school by investing donations, investments are screened to identify companies that earn more than 5% of their revenue from weapons manufacturing on an ongoing basis.
Potential investment targets that surpass the threshold would not be added to the foundation’s portfolio, and any existing holdings whose revenues change to cross the limit would be screened out, according to university spokesperson Bobby King.
The policy does not apply only to companies that supply weapons or surveillance technology to Israel. It says the foundation will “strive not to invest in companies that consistently, knowingly, and directly facilitate or enable severe violations of international law and human rights.”
The activists at all four universities are also calling on the Cal State system to divest from all companies that supply weapons, military and surveillance technology and infrastructure, as well as any other companies that “conduct activity that violates human rights” under international law. They mention Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Palantir and Leonardo by name.
Last week, the private University of San Francisco announced its own plans to divest from four U.S. defense companies, including Palantir, that have contracts with the Israeli military.
Cal State protesters said the school system has “millions of dollars invested in defense companies and weapons manufacturers.” In a letter to the campus community last spring, San José State University said that its philanthropic partner organization, the Tower Foundation, did not have any direct investments in specific companies that its academic senate wanted to divest from.
Some San José State-affiliated organizations had “nominal investments” in some of the companies, which are embedded in diversified mutual funds, according to the letter.
The hunger strikers are also calling for the Cal State system to end its international program at the University of Haifa in Israel, as well as any other study abroad programs with Israeli institutions.
Students gather for a San Francisco State University Students for Gaza press conference and rally to announce the university’s divestments from weapons manufacturers on SFSU’s campus on Aug. 29, 2024. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)
San José State spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald said in an email that the school hasn’t had a student enrolled in the program at the University of Haifa in more than a decade, and that the program was not currently on the Cal State system’s list of available programs.
SF State also has no students currently studying abroad in Israel, according to King, but he said that the school does not support academic boycotts.
“They can have a negative effect on academic freedom, as the CSU experienced when California’s well-intentioned travel ban actually impeded important LGBTQ+ research,” he said in a statement, referring to a California law that banned state-funded travel to states with discriminatory laws from 2016 to 2023.
Both universities confirmed that they are meeting with students in response to notifications about the hunger strike.
Haddy Barghouti, a student striking at San José State, said he hopes the demonstration will put pressure on his campus to reach a deal with students.
“We want our money to go to things that can help our campus and not towards weapons manufacturers,” he told KQED. “We wanted a way to use our voices and stop all of this.”
