University students begin hunger strike over Israel arms ties

In a statement, Leicester Action for Palestine, a coalition made up of staff and students at the university, urged the administration to stop banking with Barclays, which is accused of "substantial financial ties" with companies that sell weapons to Israel.

Barclays has said in response to accusations that it "trades in shares of listed companies" on the instruction of clients and is not an "investor" in them.

Leicester Action for Palestine further demanded that the university releases information on its investments, saying it has "denied all freedom of information requests". The group called on the university to end a £7.5m ($9.15m) research deal it has with Rolls Royce and Siemens, noting that Rolls Royce has produced weapons supplied to Israel.

The hunger strike follows the university arresting 11 people for allegedly occupying a university building as part of a protest last November.

The statement says the strike "is inspired by the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners who have gone on hunger strike in the past, as well as our comrades at the Swansea encampment who went on strike for over a week".

A 28-day student encampment at Swansea University in Wales led to the university committing to divest from Barclays last June.

Leicester Action for Palestine said: "We will continue to protest against the normalisation of violence and genocide on our campus, and we will continue to fight for the basic human rights of Palestinians by any means necessary.

"The university cannot continue to claim to support peace in the Middle East while working with warmongers. Its hypocrisy must end."