Why are pro-Palestine prisoners on hunger strike in a UK jail?
Eight Palestine Action activists have been participating in an indefinite hunger strike in prison for nearly two months over Palestine, and many have been hospitalized because their health conditions have reached a “critical stage,” according to a doctor.
Campaign group Prisoners of Palestine said at a press conference on Thursday that the ongoing hunger strikes at HMP Bronzefield began on November 2, calling it the largest coordinated prison hunger strike in the UK in almost 40 years.
More than 800 doctors, legal experts and family members have written to Justice Minister David Lammy urging him to meet with his lawyers to discuss the ongoing protest.
The letter comes after one of the hunger strikers, 20-year-old Qesser Zuhrah, who is now spending his 47th day without food, was hospitalized on Wednesday. Prisoners of Palestine campaigners claim prison staff refused to enter ambulances and delayed Zuhrah’s treatment overnight.
Former Labor Party member and now Your Party MP Zarah Sultana joined activists outside prison to protest the treatment of hunger strikers.
Jeremy Corbyn MP touched on the activism at PMQs on Wednesday and Sir Keir Starmer said they were following “rules and procedures” regarding hunger strikes.
Earlier this week more than 50 MPs signed an open letter to Mr Lammy: Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Ms Sultan.
Who are those on hunger strike?
A total of 8 prisoners were involved in the incident, two of whom had to end their hunger strike due to their health conditions.
- Qesser Zuhrah, 20 years old, – Day 47
- Amu Gib, 30 years old – Day 47
- Heba Muraisi, 31 years old – Day 46
- Jon Cink, 25 years old – Day 41 (Ended)
- Teuta Hodja, 29 years old – Day 40
- Kamran Ahmed, 28 years old – Day 39
- Lewie Chiaramello, 22 years old – Day 25 (14 days intermittently due to diabetes)
- Umer Khalid – 22 years old, Day 13 (Finished)
What were they accused of?
Four of the group are accused of playing a role in the 2024 break-in of an Israeli-linked defense firm and are due to stand trial as early as May next year.
The other four are accused of breaking into RAF Brize Norton in June, where they allegedly caused damage worth millions of pounds to two military aircraft.
Daniel Cooper, the legal representative for all eight prisoners, said he had sent several letters to Mr Lammy to discuss the “life-threatening deterioration in his client’s health”.
“We state clearly that our effort is to prevent loss of life. We do not know why the minister acted this way,” he said. [of State] Wouldn’t you like to be involved in a process to save lives? “Their lives are at risk, the government has known this for some time, but they have refused our requests to meet for reasons that are not clear to us.”
What are their demands?
- Banning ‘Palestine Action’ as a terrorist organization and lifting the ban
- David Lammy will meet with his legal representatives urgently
- Defense companies with ties to Israel will be closed
- Immediate bail for detainees
- Right to fair trial
- Freedom of expression and opinion and an end to censorship while in prison (including missing letters, banned books (including feminist literature), blocking of telephone calls and interruption of visits).
What is the latest situation regarding their health?
A letter signed by more than 800 doctors by A&E doctor and UCL Lecturer Dr James Smith said: “The risk of serious complications, including organ failure, irreversible neurological damage, cardiac arrhythmias and death, is very high.”
At the press conference, Dr. James Smith confirmed that “hunger strikers are dying” and added: “Prisoners being shackled while in hospital, or even when using the toilet or undergoing a medical examination – this is something I have never seen or experienced in my time as a medical professional.”
“My view is that the British government, the private companies that run the prison, the police and, in some cases, NHS providers are currently harming these people.”
Many of the detainees’ family members told the press conference today that they lost contact with the detainees when they were hospitalized, and that many of the hunger strikers had to discharge themselves to inform their relatives that they were alive.
Speaking at the conference today, a Palestinian Prisoners spokesman said they had all lost a significant percentage of their body weight and that the hunger strike, now in its second month, had reached a critical stage approaching the point of no return.
What was the reaction?
MP Jeremy Corbyn had previously addressed the hunger strikes in parliament, calling on the Justice Secretary to meet with prisoners’ legal representatives and families to discuss the situation and “help move forward to help keep them safe”.
He explained: “The Secretary of State answered me flatly ‘no’, and some of his colleagues, to their eternal disgrace, laughed at the force of his answer. I find it despicable that members of Parliament should derive some form of entertainment from a minister’s obstinate refusal to discharge his responsibilities.”
Mr Corbyn said the hunger strikers were “prisoners, not criminals” and added: “In my view they are brave people who continue in the traditions of the suffragettes, the Irish hunger strikers and many others who took the ultimate act of deliberately harming their own bodies to draw attention to a larger ongoing crime.
How did the government respond?
Prisons minister Lord Timpson said: “We are very experienced in dealing with hunger strikes. Unfortunately, we have averaged over 200 cases of hunger strikes each year over the last five years and the processes we have in place are well established and work very well – prisons work with our NHS partners every day to ensure our systems are robust and working – and they are.”
“I am very clear. I do not treat any prisoner differently from others. For this reason, we will not meet with any prisoner or their representatives. We have a justice system based on the separation of powers, and an independent judiciary is the cornerstone of this system.”
