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Bodies as Barricades
- Calla Mairead Walsh
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
As the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike enters its 48th day, the eight political prisoners in British jails are now at risk of death.
The ongoing "Prisoners for Palestine" hunger strike in British prisons, now exceeding 46 days is the largest protest in UK prisons since the 1981 Irish republican strike. Eight political prisoners, remanded without bail for direct action against Israel-linked arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and a Royal Air Force base, are demanding bail, fair trials, an end to communication censorship, and the closure of Elbit sites.
In 1981, the Irish Republican hunger strikers began to die after 46 days without eating.
The Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike — the largest in British prisons since the 1981 Irish strike, in which 10 prisoners of war were ultimately martyred — has now been ongoing for 48 days.
Political prisoners Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gib have not eaten for 48 days, Heba Muraisi for 47 days, Jon Cink for 44 days, Teuta Hoxha for 41 days, Kamran Ahmed for 40 days, Lewie Chiaramello for 26 days, and Umer Khalidfor 16 days. All are in remand without bail; four of them are part of the Filton 24, having allegedly caused over £1 million in damages to an Elbit Systems factory, while the other four are part of the RAF Brize Norton 5, having allegedly broken into a Royal Air Force base and sprayed red paint on two Airbus Voyager planes.
The hunger strike began on 2 November, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain officially gave its backing to the project of Jewish settler colonialism in Palestine.
The strike seeks an end to all censorship of the prisoners' mail and communications; immediate and unconditional release on bail; the right to a fair trial, including the disclosure of all communications between Elbit, the Zionist regime, and the British government; de-proscription of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization; and the permanent closure of all Elbit facilities and subsidiaries in the country.
While today's hunger strike takes place in a vastly different context than 1981 — the Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army were waging a protracted armed struggle for national liberation against British colonial occupation in the north of Ireland, and their strike began when the British occupiers withdrew their prisoner of war status — their root cause is the same: the British state's direct participation in imperialist genocide, whether in Palestine or Ireland, and their brutal repression of those daring to resist it.
Palestine Action was shut down due to its success in disrupting Zionist weapons factories, which threatened the existing order. The methods applied to the empire's enemies abroad – the proscription of resistance forces as "terrorist organizations" — are now turned inwards against domestic resistance as dozens of prisoners are remanded under the "Terrorism Act", despite none of them being charged with terrorism. Whether by persecuting teenagers for dismantling the infrastructure of genocide profiteering or arresting elderly people in wheelchairs for holding signs that read, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action", the instruments of legal warfare are being used to silence all real political opposition.
Since the proscription of Palestine Action as a "terrorist" organization, the abuse and political targeting of the Prisoners for Palestine has also escalated inside the prison system. They have been isolated, cut off from any communication with their family and friends, relocated to remote facilities, and deprived of basic rights within prison. Prison guards ripped off Muraisi's hijab (a keffiyeh) while she was praying, stole all of Zuhrah's hijabs, and brutalized Khalid for giving the call to prayer from behind bars. Prisoners for Palestine went on hunger strike after exhausting all other means of appealing to the government. Their bodies were the only weapons of resistance they had left.
The British government has refused to respond to letters from MPs, take a meeting with the hunger strikers' lawyers, or even acknowledge that the hunger strike is taking place at all — while nearly all the hunger strikers have been hospitalized, some multiple times, and many now face imminent death from starvation.
On Day 44, Zuhrah was left suffering in pain on her cell floor as nurses, the prison, and the NHS refused to provide her medical support or send an ambulance until she lost consciousness the next morning. On Day 46, Qesser's condition deteriorated again, and, too weak to stand, she begged to be hospitalized. MP Zarah Sultana stayed at HMP Bronzefield from the early hours of the morning, soon joined by dozens of protestors, urging them to allow an ambulance inside, which was repeatedly denied. On Thursday afternoon, Zuhrah was finally evacuated in an ambulance after their 12-hour protest.
Despite her body withering away, Zuhrah continues to insist that her suffering pales in comparison to those undergoing the US and British-sponsored genocide in Gaza, stating:
"How lucky am I! Because today...the Zionist entity is still blocking blankets, shelter materials, tents and food from reaching our starving and freezing Palestinian People...How cruel is our world when I become grateful that I have the four walls of a cell to protect my starving body from this harsh winter and I cry for those that don’t!"
Above all else, the hunger strikers are asking for supporters not to focus on them, but on continuing to take direct action against Elbit Systems. Their motivation for having taken action against the Zionist-imperialist war machine was rooted in the understanding that the British state — which was created and sustained through colonial genocide and imperialism — would not respond to polite appeals. That is why the hunger strikers call for resistance, not mere words or gestures of solidarity. The British state may have proscribed Palestine Action, but they cannot proscribe the tactic of direct action. Zuhrah writes:
"As a nation, we have made a shameful mockery of resistance. It is from our Palestinian people that we learn what resistance truly entails. It is from our Palestinian prisoners, whose captivity and unspeakable torture could not extinguish their desire for the liberation of their homeland, that we learn.It is from our resistance, whom we have cowardly forsaken, that we learn. It is from them that we learn, O Palestine, that we can do more for you than bang our pots and pans.And it is in their footsteps we follow, as we determine to put our bodies on the line in resistance to the Zionist project, its manifestation as Elbit systems and its implementation by the British state."
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