The four men are being held in a Tunisian jail, with one on the ‘brink of death’.
High-profile political leaders, artists, and activists – including Greta Thunberg – have called for the immediate release of four pro-Palestine organisers who are on hunger strike in a Tunisian jail, including one “on the brink of death”.
Wael Naouar was rushed to hospital yesterday after spending 40 days on hunger strike, according to the Gaza Sumud Flotilla (GSF), an organisation that looks to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver emergency aid by sea.
Alongside Thunberg, South African politician Zwelivelile Mandela, who is Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has also signed an open letter urging the Tunisian government to free Naouar and his three co-defendants. Both Thunberg and Mandela joined the same aid flotilla as Naouar last year.
Other signatories to the letter include Irish rap group Kneecap and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham. They are also calling for “urgent medical care” for the detained men.
The four were arrested in March after being accused of misusing funds raised for the organisation. He launched his hunger strike at Mornaguia prison to protest his detention and that of his fellow activists – Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri and Nabil Channoufi, who began their strikes around two weeks ago.
Naouar is in a semi-comatose state, GSF said, adding that the Tunisian authorities have sought to impose an information blackout to prevent updates about his condition. Naouar’s father said he was close to death after visiting him earlier this week.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand, central London, ahead of a hearing over whether proscribing of Palestine Action should be temporarily blocked, July 4, 2025
MPS CALLED for an inquiry into the Palestine Action hunger strikers today as the last one ended his strike after being given hours to live.
Umer Khalid, 22, told of ending his food and water fast after being rushed to hospital and given a “choice between treatment and likely death within the next 24 hours.”
He said that he believed “there is so much we can do to effect change … this clearly was not my time.”
If PM Sir Keir Starmer and Justice Secretary David Lammy want “to see me dead … they can come and do it themselves.
“Until then we keep fighting, we keep resisting,” he added in a statement released by Prisoners for Palestine yesterday.
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Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell is among the MPs who have spoken up in Parliament for the prisoners.
Today he told a Prisoners for Palestine press conference: “I would like the Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy now to have a full inquiry into how these prisoners have been treated.
“Because I do believe most people will find it’s unacceptable that they are on remand for so long and the way they have been treated in prison itself.
“That includes, I have to say, access to health facilities when some of them have been I believe in a dangerous plight.
“What we want to see is a review by the Secretary of State for Justice on the whole issue of their detention and their treatment so that we avoid this happening in the future.
“People shouldn’t have to put their lives at risk in this way just to secure an element of fair treatment and justice under our system.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A mural in Derry depicts Raymond McCartney, who took part in the 1980 hunger strike. (Photo: Deirdre Hamill / Alamy)
The UK government planned “covert” measures to monitor “everything” which was said and written by Irish republican hunger strikers in prison in 1980, declassified files reveal.
The strike had been called in response to the removal of political status for convicted paramilitary prisoners, with seven men in HMP Maze refusing their first meal on 27 October.
It ended 53 days later, with some of the hunger strikers claiming the UK government had gestured towards meeting their demands before reneging.
The incident set the scene for the 1981 hunger strike, which saw ten Irish republicans including Bobby Sands starve themselves to death amid a showdown with Margaret Thatcher.
Files released to the National Archives in London now detail how the UK government was acutely concerned about the domestic and international implications of the 1980 hunger strike.
It produced weekly bulletins on the situation, monitored media coverage, liaised with the Catholic church, and even considered meeting some of the strikers’ demands, the files show.
Plans were also made to employ “covert techniques” in order to “find out as much as possible about the day-to-day state of mind of each striker”.
This would apparently include eavesdropping on the prisoners’ private conversations and intercepting mail so that the British state could know “everything” that was said and written.
Palestine solidarity activists on hunger strike in British prisons face life-threatening risks as their protest enters its third month.
Palestine solidarity activists on hunger strike in British prisons have long passed a critical point in their protest, with at least two now facing a risk of imminent death. Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed, who have been on hunger strike since November, have both reported worsening symptoms that health professionals warn could signal permanent damage. Their deteriorating condition has led to yet another wave of appeals for the UK government, led by Keir Starmer, to finally address the strikers’ demands.
“As the hunger strike enters its third month, those still on hunger strike continue to deteriorate, and grave danger looms over them,” the group Prisoners for Palestine warned. “Despite this, they continue firm in their actions and beliefs, that continuing to strike is the only way to get justice in the face of the government’s contempt for life.”
Most recently, Muraisi has reported uncontrollable muscle spasms and increasing difficulty breathing, while Ahmed has experienced intermittent hearing loss and severe physical decline. He was hospitalized for the sixth time this week, with health workers reporting growing difficulty in providing care. “Healthcare staff found it extremely difficult to cannulate him due to the effect the hunger strike has had on his body, causing his veins to shrink and become very hard to find,” Prisoners for Palestine said in an earlier statement.
Muraisi and Ahmed are among the eight activists involved in what has been described as the largest hunger strike in Britain since the 1981 Irish political prisoners’ strike. A third activist, Lewie Chiaramello, remains on intermittent hunger strike and faces serious risks due to underlying medical conditions, namely diabetes. At the same time, activists who have paused or ended their strikes in recent days are struggling to recover their health. Teuta Hoxha, who paused her strike earlier this week, reported that prison authorities failed to ensure support for adequate supervised refeeding, potentially exposing her to the serious risks posed by refeeding syndrome.
The strikers are demanding guarantees of their right to bail and to communicate with family and support networks, as well as the deproscription of the direct action group Palestine Action and an end to British complicity in the genocide in Gaza, including a halt to all operations by Elbit Systems in the UK. Despite continuous appeals from families, human rights organizations, and members of Parliament, the British government has so far refused even to engage in dialogue.
“Keir Starmer’s government is not passive; it is actively complicit: enabling genocide abroad, escalating repression at home and giving a green light to Trump’s renewed imperialism,” MP Zarah Sultana wrote on January 6. “This is not neutrality. It is collaboration. Let there be no ambiguity: if Heba or Kamran die, that blood is on the hands of this Labour government.”
In contrast to the government’s stance, solidarity for the hunger strikers continues to grow both locally and internationally. Following appeals by Irish organizations and political parties drawing parallels with the experience of Irish prisoners in the 1980s, South African networks and individuals called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urge British authorities to take action.
“Under apartheid, some detained unjustly by the regime used hunger strikes as the only form of resistance available to them, calling for justice for themselves and for all who were oppressed,” their letter, dated December 29, 2025, reads. “As a nation, we must therefore stand in solidarity with these six young people, support their reasonable demands, and urge the British government to end its injustices against them, actions that could ultimately cost them their lives.”
The Labour government’s continued refusal to reconsider its repressive approach to protest rights has been widely criticized, including in a recent report by Human Rights Watch. The warnings highlight a general climate in Britain that is increasingly hostile to popular dissent and is having a chilling effect on fundamental civil liberties.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (left) and (right) Robert Jenrick
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year just gone
Heroes
The Birmingham Bin Strikers
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Their struggle matters to us all: the largest local authority in the country seeks to tackle its financial problems by attacking the pay and conditions of its workforce, and if it gets away with it other councils will follow suit.
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Francesca Albanese
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Sanctioned by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in revenge for her UN report From an Economy of Occupation to an Economy of Genocide, her bank accounts have been frozen, and this UN special rapporteur is blacklisted and barred from the international banking system like a terrorist, forcing her to manage all transactions in cash.
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The Palestine solidarity movement
So many people deserve special mentions, but the entire movement must be honoured: the heroic hunger strikers putting their lives on the line for justice; the thousands risking 14-year prison terms to expose the absurdity of the government’s ban on Palestine Action by sitting down peacefully in public; the leading peace activists arrested and charged for organising mass demonstrations, including Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal and Stop the War Coalition vice-chair Chris Nineham; the millions who have marched or fundraised or spread the word about a genocide, who forced Trump to tell Netanyahu in October that he cannot “fight the world” and must concede a ceasefire.
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The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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Under its new leader Sophie Bolt, CND has stepped up to the challenge across 2025, holding a tour bringing the arguments against rearmament to military bases across Britain and a fortnight’s peace camp in protest at Britain’s return to being Washington’s Air Strip One.
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Villains
“Tommy Robinson”
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has disfigured the British political scene for years but 2025 has seen ominous new developments, from his sponsorship by the world’s richest man — far-right megalomaniac Elon Musk — to the largest far-right demonstration in British history that brought well over 100,000 onto the streets of London in September.
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Sarah Pochin and Robert Jenrick
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These two deserve public shaming for pushing the boundaries of explicit racism in public life: Pochin by complaining about the number of black people on telly and Jenrick with his no-white-faces-in-Handsworth drivel. Pure poison from two politicians we need to see the back of as soon as possible.
David Lammy
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Lammy, because the so-called Justice Secretary is presiding over horrendous abuses of justice — refusing to meet lawyers for the Palestine Action hunger strikers, who are being held for months and years behind bars without trial, and now planning the withdrawal of the right to jury trials just as the police are getting into gear with mass arrests of obviously innocent people.
Donald Trump
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The White House declares active support for far-right movements across the world (particularly in Europe), expresses open contempt for international law, blows up boats, killing their crews, in a murderous rampage across the Caribbean while seizing Venezuelan tankers in acts of naked piracy. And all while moving closer to war.
In the Middle East, Trump breaks new ground by publicly endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and has already joined a direct Israeli attack on Iran — just days ago he mooted another.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.