On Saturday, two of the prisoners on hunger strike were taken to hospital, the latest of eight prisoners admitted to hospital since they began their hunger strikes on November 2nd, a date forever associated with the signing of the Balfour Declaration.
28 year-old Kamran Ahmed, who is being held at Pentonville prison, was hospitalised on Saturday while Amu Gib, 30, who has not eaten food for 50 days at Bronzefield prison was taken to hospital on Friday.
Both Ahmed and Gib are among eight detainees on hunger strike across five prisons over their alleged involvement in a break-in at the Brize Norton Air Base, where a military aircraft was sprayed with paint, and action taken against the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.
20 year-old Qesser Zuhrah, who has refused food for 50 days, is also in hospital having lost 13% of her body weight.
All eight are being held on remand for over a year until their trial dates are set – far above the UK’s six month pre-trial detention limit.
They are not being charged with terrorist activities – having been arrested before Palestine Action was proscribed as a ‘terrorist organisation’ – but for offences relating to alleged break-ins or criminal damage.
This hasn’t stopped them from being treated to constant harassment by prison authorities, and reports of refusals by prison staff to allow ambulances to be called as the hunger strikers reach a dangerous medical stage that threatens to kill them.
The demands of the hunger strikers are that they be granted bail, for the right to a fair trial, and for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed.
The Labour government is using detention without trial in an attempt to break the opposition to its collaboration and complicity with Zionist genocide, and is now clearly prepared to let these hunger strikers die.
The group Prisoners for Palestine warned this weekend that the hunger strikers will die unless there is urgent government intervention, saying: ‘They are in the custody of the state, and any harm that comes to them is a deliberate outcome of the government’s negligence and the politicisation of their detention.’
Prison authorities have been accused of withholding medical treatment, and refusing to call for ambulances along with restricting mail, calls and visits.
On Sunday, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is Gib’s MP, wrote to the prisons inspectorate raising concerns over ‘inconsistent and unreliable’ health treatment for the hunger strikers.
Last week, over 50 MPs wrote to Labour justice secretary David Lammy urging him to meet lawyers for the hunger strikers to ensure that they have their human rights upheld, only to be contemptuously rejected by prison minister Lord Timpson.
Last week over 800 doctors, legal experts and family members wrote an open letter urging Lammy to meet to save the pro-Palestinian hunger strikers’ lives, while the University and College Union (UCU) issued a statement on Thursday calling for the prisoners’ release on bail.
Meanwhile the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group (TUCG), which brings together eleven national unions, has also written to Lammy expressing their grave concerns over the ‘situation facing the eight-pro-Palestinian prisoners’.
This letter concludes: ‘We implore you to intervene urgently to ensure that the treatment of the hunger strikers is humane and their human rights upheld’ before urging him to meet with their legal representatives ‘to discuss these matters’.
Clearly, Lammy and the Labour government will not be swayed by appeals to ensure humane treatment for hunger strikers or be interested in upholding their human rights. The real criminals are not these hunger strikers. The criminals are the Labour government that arms and supports Zionist genocide and is prepared to use the full force of the state, the courts and police to try to hold back the huge tide of support from workers and youth for the struggle of the Palestinian people.
The time has come for the working class to use its power and to deal with the Starmer government by forcing the TUC to act and immediately call a general strike to bring Labour down replacing it with a workers’ government and socialism. This is the way forward!
