Calls Mount for UK To Act on Palestine Action Hunger Strikers

By Staff, Agencies

Former hunger-strikers from Ireland, Palestine, and Guantanamo Bay have urged the UK government to act on behalf of pro-Palestine activists in British prisons, some of whom have gone without food for more than two months, putting their lives in danger.

In an open letter published Sunday, the signatories said they were acting “in uncompromising solidarity” with eight Palestine Action prisoners who began refusing food in November.

The detainees are being held in detention in connection with alleged break-ins and damage at "Israeli" arms maker "Elbit" Systems UK’s site in Filton near Bristol and at RAF Brize Norton airbase in Oxfordshire.

Currently, three activists reportedly remain on hunger strike, while the others have suspended it.

The prisoners deny the charges and demand bail, a fair trial, and the removal of Palestine Action from the terrorism list after their protest against "Israel’s" Gaza war.

The letter condemned the activists’ imprisonment “without trial or conviction,” accusing authorities of using terrorism charges to deny rights and sympathy, with detentions possibly lasting up to two years.

Comparing the case to historic hunger strikes by suffragettes, Irish republicans, and Guantanamo detainees, the signatories demanded an urgent ministerial meeting, immediate bail, dropped charges, fair trials, medical care, and an end to censorship and visit restrictions.

One of the hunger strikers, Kamran Ahmed, was hospitalized last week for a heart complication, according to Sky News, which cited medics warning they could be at risk of death.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson has said hunger strikes are “not a new issue” for British prisons and that ministers will not meet the detainees, arguing it would be “entirely unconstitutional and inappropriate” for the government to intervene in ongoing legal cases.

The authors of the letter argued that “hunger strikes end only when power intervenes, or when people die.”