It was the ninth day without food.
Maya Abdullah, a student protester at UCLA, had been holding strong. She refused to eat until the university acknowledged her hunger strike and agreed to meet demands for divestment from Israel. She collapsed before she ever got a response.
Paramedics arrived on campus early Monday morning. Videos now flooding social media show Maya on a stretcher, her voice barely audible: “The University has failed to speak directly to me about my hunger strike.” She was rushed to the hospital. Moments later, her fellow students began chanting through tears and fury: “This is what happens when UCLA ignores its students. This is on you, UCLA.”
And just like that, the fight for Gaza on college campuses hit a grim new chapter. One written in bodies, silence, and sacrifice.
Why Was Maya Starving Herself?
Because she says no one else is listening.
Maya is one of many students across the country protesting what they say is their university’s complicity in the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. At the core of their demands is a call for schools like UCLA to cut financial ties with companies and institutions that support or profit from Israel’s ongoing blockade and military operations.
More than 34,000 people, many of them children, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to local health authorities. For Maya and thousands of other students, that number isn’t just abstract data. It’s a fire that keeps them sleeping in tents, skipping meals, losing sleep, and in Maya’s case, risking their own lives.
“This isn’t just about tuition or campus politics,” one protester at UCLA told us. “This is about the fact that the school we pay to attend is investing in weapons that kill children. How do we stay quiet?”
The Hunger Strikes Are Spreading
UCLA isn’t the only place where students are putting their bodies on the line. Hunger strikes have already started at Stanford, Yale, and across California State University campuses.
The message is painfully clear. If universities keep ignoring the protests, students will escalate.
One student at Stanford, also on a hunger strike, told us, “Maya’s collapse shook us. But it also confirmed what we already knew. They won’t listen to our words. So now we protest with silence and starvation.”
A Graduation Speech That Shook the Room
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, another student made her stance clear. This time with a microphone instead of a hunger strike.
At George Washington University’s graduation, recent graduate Cecilia Culver stood in front of a roaring crowd and said:
“I cannot celebrate my own graduation without a heavy heart, knowing how many students in Palestine have been forced to stop their studies, expelled from their homes, and killed for simply remaining in the country of their ancestors.”
She urged graduates to withhold donations to GWU until the school comes clean about its investments and cuts ties with companies funding Israel’s war machine. The speech went viral. Students cried. Parents applauded. And alumni started pulling out their wallets, but not for donations.
UCLA’s Response? Silence.
There has been no public statement from UCLA’s administration about Maya’s hospitalization, her hunger strike, or the broader protest movement that has taken over parts of campus. No acknowledgement. No meeting. Nothing.
That silence is fueling outrage. Professors, grad students, and even alumni have started to speak out.
One teaching assistant told us anonymously, “It’s hard to teach students about justice and history when they’re literally passing out in front of your building and no one in power blinks an eye.”
Maya’s Words Still Echo
Before she collapsed, Maya recorded a video message.
“The people who run these universities directly profit from the slaughter of children,” she said. “If we can’t even get a meeting with our university president, then what hope is there for anyone else?”
That video is now everywhere. A grim snapshot of the moment we’re living in. A young woman, barely able to speak, still refusing to back down.
So What Happens Next?
No one knows.
Will UCLA finally speak up? Will Maya recover? Will other students follow her into the hospital?
What we do know is this. The protests are not going away. If anything, Maya’s collapse has only made students more determined. Across the country, this generation of young people is showing that they’re willing to risk their futures, their diplomas, and even their lives to take a stand.
The question is whether anyone in power will actually listen.
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