Canada student collapses after going on hunger strike to protest university links to Israel

A Canadian student at McGill University in Montreal has been hospitalised after going on hunger strike for over a month to protest the educational institution’s links with arms manufacturers supplying Israel.

Rania Amine began her hunger strike on February 19. She fainted on Saturday and is now “stable and under observation” at hospital, Middle East Eye reported.

Amine is one of a group of students hunger striking in an effort to pressure McGill University to divest from weapons manufacturers doing business with to Israel.

McGill University’s website shows that it has invested in Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and defence company which has supplied fighter jets to Israel, and Safran, a French arms manufacturer that has also supplied weapons to Israel.

Protests and actions have been taking place at McGill and other universities worldwide ever since Israel began its deadly and indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip, which has left most of the territory in ruins and killed over 32,000 people, mostly women and children.

“The university of McGill has left us no choice because they’ve been ignoring the peaceful protests, the actions that have been taken by students and student groups on campus,” Amine told The Guardian before she collapsed and was hospitalised.

“McGill has ultimately pushed us to take this extreme form of action and put our bodies and our health and our lives on the line to make them know that it is absolutely unacceptable that they use our tuition money to invest in this way,” she added.

Around 17 students are taking part in the hunger strike. Most are doing this on a rota basis, while Amine and one other student are on an indefinite and open-ended strike.

The students say that McGill University has invested 20 million dollars in arms manufacturers and other Israel-linked companies.

McGill has refused to divest from the companies despite a student referendum last November calling for it to do so. It previously said it would host a public meeting with the hunger striking students but cancelled it.