Urgent Call to Save Lives of Hunger Strikers in Palestine

Appeal to the UK Government

We, the undersigned, are writing today as survivors of state violence. We are a group of former hunger strikers from Palestine, Ireland, and Guantanamo. Hunger strikes only conclude when power intervenes or when people die. We have learned, through pain, permanent damage, and observing our comrades, how states behave when prisoners have no other option than to refuse the only right they possess: food.

We stand in unconditional solidarity with those currently on hunger strike in British prisons: Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Lewie Chiaramello, and Muhammad Umer Khalid. These individuals are incarcerated without trial and without conviction. For some, the period of pre-trial detention has lasted more than a year, and for the majority, they will not be afforded a trial for two years.

The UK government has chosen isolation and prolonged censorship. It has opted to limit their contact with loved ones, allow medical neglect, and employed a rhetoric of terror designed to deprive these prisoners of public sympathy and fundamental rights before any trial takes place.

We cannot forget what those on hunger strike represent today. They are fighting for Palestine. They oppose the arms infrastructure that kills Palestinians. They stand against the apartheid regime implemented by the Israeli government. They stand in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. They fight for the complete liberation of Palestine, from river to sea.

For years, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to systematic abuses in Israeli prisons. The UK government, through its unwavering support for the Israeli state, has chosen to be complicit in its actions. It opts to continue arming Israel and to shield Israeli officials from accountability while Palestinian bodies—men, women, and children—are violated and destroyed in their streets, homes, and prisons.

The political prisoners from Palestine Action initiated their hunger strike when they had no other option. The state's decision to use the classification of "terror" to impose systematic repression on those who refuse to comply has left them without alternatives in their quest for legal rights. Every detail of their cases is marked by irregularities and political pressures.

Therefore, we demand the following: 1. An urgent ministerial meeting with the families and legal representatives to agree on actions that will save the lives of those on hunger strike. 2. An immediate release of the Palestine Action prisoners (known as Filton 24) and all those on hunger strike. 3. The annulment of terror charges aimed at criminalizing dissent. 4. Fair trial conditions, free from fear-based narratives and political interference. 5. Immediate access to independent medical assistance chosen by the prisoners.

History will judge us, as it has judged former hunger strikers in the past. We are not mere observers, but witnesses to the injustice currently unfolding, perpetrated by the state against people whom history will vindicate.