Maya Abdallah stopped eating May 9 in support of Palestine.

Eight days later, she left campus in an ambulance after losing consciousness from hunger.

Abdallah, a third-year film and television student, went on a hunger strike to demand that the university divest from companies associated with the Israeli military and disclose its financial investments.

Abdallah said she was inspired by hunger strikes in support of Palestine at California State University campuses – including San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach. She added that having family from Palestine has made pro-Palestine activism a prominent part of her life since she was a child.

“I know a hunger strike is un-expellable,” she said. “It’s a form of peaceful protest. I’m not hurting anyone or disrupting anyone. I’m simply sitting here and saying, ‘if you care about your students and the way that you say in your mission statement, come to the table. Let’s talk about it.’”

Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people and Hamas took 251 hostages, according to the Associated Press. In response, the Israeli military launched a campaign into the Gaza strip that has killed at least 54,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military began a blockade March 2, preventing food, medication and other aid from entering Gaza. The blockade has left Gaza’s entire population at risk of starvation, according to the World Health Organization.

On May 17, Abdallah said in a text message that she was hospitalized after fainting in the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. In an Instagram reel posted May 19, Abdallah added that she felt lightheaded while participating in a pro-Palestine protest organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and lost consciousness shortly after.

Abdallah announced the hunger strike in a TikTok video released May 10 that received 2.2 million views and nearly 400,000 likes. Standing by Janss Steps, she urged UCLA to divest from companies financing the Israeli military, cease the “beratement” of its students who protest in support of Palestine and protect its undocumented students from deportation.

Abdallah said she grew her social media audience before the strike through posting comedy sketches and occasionally making videos about Palestine. She added that she now finds creating lighthearted content difficult, as her heart and mind are focused on those suffering in Palestine.

“It’s hard to laugh now,” she said. “It’s hard to make that same kind of content when all you can think about is the slaughter of your people.”

Abdallah said despite the notion that hunger strikes involve large numbers of people, individual activists’ actions can be greatly amplified by online support. She added that social media has been integral in allowing student activists fighting for Palestinian liberation to gain control over their narratives.

Abdallah said people tagged UCLA’s official Instagram account in the comments of her videos and left comments across UCLA’s social media platforms regarding her strike. She said Guy Christensen, her friend and a student at Ohio State University, was inspired to begin his own hunger strike and created a GoFundMe, which has since raised over $220,000 to bring food into Gaza.

During her hunger strike, Abdallah said students approached her to say they had seen her videos and encouraged her to continue fighting for Palestine. Abdallah added that there is a long history of student activism at UCLA, including a 1993 student hunger strike that led to the establishment of UCLA’s César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.

Abdallah said she began experiencing brain fog, fatigue and heightened emotions six days after her hunger strike began.

“I’ve had some symptoms that come with not having food for six days, but it also gives me a lot of insight into what the people of Palestine and the people in Gaza are going through right now by force,” Abdallah said.

The university administration did not contact Abdallah throughout the nine-day-long hunger strike nor during her hospitalization, she said. However, she added that UCPD called her to perform a wellness check around the third day of her strike and a UCLA caseworker reached out to coordinate with her professors and help her academically.

A UCLA Media Relations spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the university encourages students to engage in safe and peaceful forms of expression. Campus offices such as UCLA’s Student Health Services will be made available to all students, the spokesperson added in the statement.

“We have a long history of supporting the free expression of different points of view,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “We strongly urge all Bruins to peacefully express themselves and exercise their First Amendment Rights in ways that are safe.”

Lhiannan Sidhe, a third-year film and television student and Abdallah’s friend, said pro-Palestine activism has become a key part of both Abdallah’s social media platform as well as her everyday life.

“This is all she talks about,” Sidhe said. “Whether it’s on social media, or the comedy skits she’s really known for, or her writing that I’ve been able to read, or shorts that she’s been a part of. It all goes back to Gaza and Palestine.”

Abdallah said her protest was not a failure, despite the lack of response from the university.

She added that she had no expectations that her strike would cause UCLA to divest from the beginning, and rather intended to raise awareness for what she said was UCLA’s complicity with Israel’s actions.

“By going on strike and showing the world how they (UCLA) don’t care, we can start to have these conversations about how can we, as a group, enact change,” she said.

In a May 19 Instagram post, Abdallah appeared to have been released from the hospital.

Following her hospitalization, Abdallah said she will continue to pursue media attention until it provokes a response from UCLA, and is working with Christensen to plan her next steps. She added that she plans to continue collaborating with fellow students to protest for Palestinian liberation.

“If we band together, we can make this a place that we’re proud to be alumni of one day,” she said. “I just urge people to be brave, history has been defined by students.”