Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike | UK news
Three prisoners affiliated with the Palestine Movement announced the end of their hunger strike after the government decided not to award a £2bn contract to Israeli arms company subsidiary Elbit Systems UK; The other four detainees paused their protests and chose not to continue.
Fears for the welfare of those involved were growing. On Wednesday, 31-year-old Heba Muraisi would have been on the 73rd day of refusing food; This was the same number of days reached by Irish republican hunger striker Kieran Doherty, the longest survivor of the 10 men killed in action in 1981. The earliest death among Irish republicans came 46 days later, raising fears that the lives of prisoners awaiting trial in prison for crimes related to protests claimed by Palestine Action were at risk.
Among their demands was the closure of Elbit Systems, a slogan used by the Palestine Movement in its campaign against the company’s facilities in the UK.
Late on Wednesday, Prisoners of Palestine said the decision not to award Elbit Systems UK the contract to train 60,000 British soldiers a year met an important demand. He said the company had won more than 10 public tenders since 2012, so the Ministry of Defense’s decision signals a change of thinking among officials.
Palestinian Prisoners also pointed out that on Friday, by order of the Ministry of Justice, a meeting was held between national leaders of prison health services and representatives of prisoners on hunger strike, where prison conditions and treatment recommendations were discussed.
Kamran Ahmed, 28, who will be on day 66 on Wednesday, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who has type 1 diabetes and fasts every other day and will be fasting on day 46, also stopped refusing food.
Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gib, who have suspended their strikes, are also ending their actions.
Palestinian prisoners said that they have now all started to be re-fed in accordance with health rules, which is a dangerous process that carries the risk of death if not done correctly.
The Guardian understands that Umar Khalid, 22, who resumed his hunger strike on Saturday after previously suspending it, continues to refuse to eat.
Palestinian Prisoners said there had been a number of victories: “In the past few weeks alone, 500 people have signed up to take direct action against the genocidal military-industrial complex, which is more than the number of people who took action in the five-year campaign of Palestine Action. During that five-year campaign, four Israeli arms factories were closed. Elbit Systems is living on stolen time; we will see it completely shut down, not because of the government, but because of the people.”
It was also stated that Muraisi’s transfer back to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey was accepted by HMP New Hall in Wakefield, where he had moved hundreds of kilometers away from family and friends last year. His transfer was another demand of the hunger strikers.
Palestinian prisoners said Hoxha was offered a meeting with the head of the joint extremism unit at his prison and that the unit “regulated the treatment of prisoners as ‘terrorists’.”
Another demand was to end the censorship of prisoners’ communications. The group said: “During the hunger strike, some prisoners began receiving bulk postal parcels, and in one case an apology was received from prison staff for a letter that was six months late. Books on Gaza and feminism were also distributed after months of waiting.”
“Our prisoners’ hunger strike will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance and an embarrassment to the British state. It exposed to the world that Britain had political prisoners in the service of a foreign genocidal regime and saw the determination of hundreds of people to follow in the prisoners’ footsteps into direct action.”
Gib said: “We have never trusted our government with our lives, and we won’t start now. We will be the ones to decide how to give our lives to justice and freedom.”
