Britain’s biggest hunger strike in decades – and the media won’t touch it
CLAMPDOWN: People take part in a demonstration at Parliament SquareTHE Palestine Action hunger strike is on track to become the largest since the 1981 Irish republican protest led by Bobby Sands, yet campaigners say it has faced a “mainstream media blackout.”
So far, seven prisoners have refused food — some for as long as four weeks — with more expected to join.
They are among 33 prisoners who are locked away without trial, over alleged involvement in non-violent actions aimed at blockading arms supply to Israel.
The hunger strikers’ demands are clear. They want Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, to cease operating in Britain for good.
They want the ban on Palestine Action, currently designated a terror group, to be lifted. And they are demanding immediate bail and a fair trial — basic democratic rights that should already be guaranteed.
Francesca Nadin, a spokesperson for Prisoners for Palestine, spoke to the Morning Star about their struggle.
Nadin herself was in prison on remand last year, over actions at a Teledyne weapons factory and a Barclays branch in Leeds.
“The fact is that for the charges that they have, which is property damage, people are never usually kept on remand,” she says.
“It’s clear to me that the process is the punishment.”
Four of the strikers — Qesser Zuhrah, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Kamran Ahmed — have been held on remand since last November, far exceeding the six-month pre-trial custody limit.
They are part of the “Filton 24” — inmates held in connection to an action in which activists reportedly drove a repurposed prison van into an Elbit manufacturing hub and dismantled equipment inside.
Qesser, who hasn’t eaten for over four weeks, now feels close to collapse, campaigners report, while Heba, who has also gone more than a month without food is severely fatigued and is finding it increasingly difficult to hold water down.
Teuta and Kamran, who haven’t eaten for 26 and 25 days, were both recently hospitalised.
“As you can imagine now, they’re all very weak”, Nadin says.
“It’s getting to the point of serious deterioration. We are just prepared for something very serious to happen any moment now.”
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