Who is Maya Abdullah? UCLA Pro-Palestine protester Hospitalized after 9-day hunger strike

May 20, 2025 11:34 AM IST

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Maya Abdullah, a student and participant in the hunger strike protests at UCLA, is known on Instagram as @mayaayooni.Why are students like Maya protesting?

Maya Abdullah, a student and participant in the hunger strike protests at UCLA, is known on Instagram as @mayaayooni.

The protests at UCLA continue, with a pro-Palestine protester student seeing hospitalization after nine days of a hunger strike. The student, Maya Abdullah, was rushed to the hospital following the incident, while protests across the campus intensified.

Video footage of Maya Abdullah being taken to the hospital (L), Maya Abdullah’s image (R) (X)

Why are students like Maya protesting?

Maya is one of the growing group of students at universities across the United States who are protesting against the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

The protestors are demanding that their respective campuses divest from Israel and support free speech inside institutions like the UCLA. In this regard, hunger strikes continue at Yale, Stanford, and at California State University schools.

A video of the protesting students has emerged online, where they are blaming UCLA for the hospitalization of Maya. The video starts with the words, “This is what happens when UCLA ignores its students. This is on you, UCLA.”

In the video, Maya can be seen being taken to the hospital on a stretcher after passing out. Maya can be heard saying in the video message, “The University has failed to speak directly to me about my hunger strike.”

“The people who run these Universities directly profit from the slaughter of children,” she continued, referring to the ongoing conflict and blockade by Israel in Gaza.

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Meanwhile, recent George Washington University graduate Cecilia Culver delivered a very important speech in front of an applauding and roaring crowd. She 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.” If this were not all, Culver urged fellow graduates to withhold donations towards the University until GWU discloses and divests from Israel amid the ongoing conflict.