A GROUP of student activists have entered their third day of a hunger strike in a protest over their university's ties with Israel.
Nine students at Glasgow University are taking part in the hunger strike which aims to pressure the university to commit to divesting £6.8 million worth of shares they currently hold in arms companies.
The action is part of an ongoing student campaign co-ordinated by the Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society (GUJPS), a student activist group.
The society claims the university’s investments in arms companies such as BAE Systems make it complicit in war crimes, including the genocide in Palestine where Glasgow University alumnus Dima Alhaj and her six-month-old baby were killed.
On Wednesday, a group of 30 students occupied the university's Charles Wilson Building, while on Thursday, around 100 students blocked University Avenue and prevented traffic from coming through.
In a speech delivered at the Advanced Research Centre, one of the students participating in the hunger strike said: “The hunger strikers are forcing the university to face up to the reality of the death and misery that they are directly responsible for.
"If the university will ignore the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza then we will bring that reality to their doorstep.
"There are now nine students on hunger strike. Nine students are putting their lives on the line to demand that this university do what is right, and what the staff and student body that they claim to represent overwhelmingly desires.”
A Glasgow University spokesperson said: "The University has been in contact with GUJPS on numerous occasions and has specifically offered assistance and support to those saying they are on hunger strike."
