Joint letter from former hunger strikers in solidarity with Palestine Action prisoners

As seen on Al Jazeera, CAGE has coordinated a joint letter signed by former hunger strikers from Palestine, Ireland, and Guantánamo Bay, addressed to the UK Prime Minister and the UK government.

The letter brings together survivors of state violence who have themselves endured hunger strikes, prolonged detention, and systemic abuse. Drawing on their lived experience, the signatories issue an urgent appeal in solidarity with the current hunger strikers held in British prisons, warning of the irreversible consequences of prolonged remand, isolation, medical neglect, and the use of “terror” legislation to suppress dissent. As the longest of the hunger strikers, Heba, passes day 70, the possibility of death is hauntingly present. 

Below is the full text of the letter, published in full to preserve the voices and demands of those who have lived through the very policies now being imposed on the Palestine Action prisoners.

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FOR THE ATTENTION OF:

The UK Prime Minister

The UK Government

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Who are We?

We, the undersigned, write to you today as survivors of state violence.

We are a collective of former hunger strikers from Palestine, Ireland and Guantánamo Bay. Hunger strikes end only when power intervenes, or when people die. We learned, through pain, permanent damage, and watching our comrades fall, how states behave when prisoners have no choice but to refuse the only right afforded to them: food.

As such, we write in uncompromising solidarity with the hunger strikers held today in British prisons: Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gibb, Heba Murasi, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Lewi Chiaramello, and Muhammad Umer Khaled. They are imprisoned on remand, without trial and without conviction. For some, their remand has lasted over a year, and for most, they will not see trial for two.

The UK government has chosen prolonged remand, isolation and their censorship. It has chosen to restrict their contact with loved ones, chosen medical neglect, and to cloak these choices in the language of terror in an insidious attempt to deliberately strip these prisoners of public sympathy and basic rights before any trial takes place.

We cannot forget what the hunger strikers today stand for. They stand for Palestine. They stand accused of dismantling the infrastructure of weapons that kills Palestinians. They stand for the end of the apartheid regime implemented by the Israeli government. They stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners. They stand for the complete liberation of Palestine, from the river, to the sea.

For years, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to systematic abuse inside Israeli prisons, including well documented torture, extreme sexual violence, medical neglect, and death in custody. Yet, the UK government, through its unwavering support for the Israeli state continues to choose to be complicit in its actions. It continues to watch, and it chooses to continue to arm Israel and shield Israeli officials from accountability while Palestinian bodies, men, women and children are violated and destroyed in their streets, in their homes, and behind bars.

State Policy and its Consequences

This hunger strike began because the Palestine Action political prisoners had no other choice. The state’s decision to rely on the use of the classification of ‘terror’ to enforce the systematic repression of those who refuse to conform has left them with no other alternative as they seek the rights they are entitled to by law.

This is not a new phenomenon: the use of the word ‘terror’ has long been used to manufacture fear, to poison public perception, to justify the repeated violation of even the most basic human rights. Once this label is attached, rights become conditional, liberty becomes transactional, and the presumption of innocence evaporates. The Rule of Law that is so proudly claimed to be upheld is swiftly desecrated in the face of a singular word, yielded at the whim of unscrupulous politicians determined to protect their own interests: “terrorist.”

The proscription of Palestine Action was not about safety. It was about control. The repeated and flagrant breaches of sub judice was not about convincing the public that this was a dangerous organisation: it was about condemning the prisoners before they stood trial. It was about isolating prisoners, criminalising solidarity, and sending a warning to anyone who might speak or organise against the Israeli war machine.

No trial held under an atmosphere of state manufactured fear can be deemed as fair, and no jury exposed to decades of terrorism rhetoric can operate free of bias. These prisoners were labelled the moment the announcement of their arrest made mention of a ‘terrorism connection,’ despite those proceedings not having taken place.

Our Demands

We therefore make our demands clear:

An urgent ministerial meeting with families and legal representatives to agree a life-preserving pathway

Immediate bail for the Filton 24 and all hunger strikers.

The dropping of terror charges designed to criminalise dissent.

Fair trial conditions free from fear driven narrative and political interference.

Immediate access to independent medical care chosen by the prisoners.

An end to censorship and restrictions on family visits.

The Price of Inaction

For the prisoners of Long Kesh, Britain chose to let them die. For the prisoners of Guantánamo Bay, Britain chose silence. In Palestine, governments continue to choose delay. Each time, officials claimed responsibility rested elsewhere. Each time, history recorded the truth.

The Suffragettes, despite being force fed and labelled as terrorists, are today celebrated as heroes and freedom fighters. The Long Kesh prisoners, despite their horrific conditions, are now seen as a vital part of the peace achieved under the Good Friday Agreement. The Guantánamo Bay prisoners, despite their inhumane treatment and public consent for torture, remained untried and were largely released without conviction. Just as they were all vindicated, history will too vindicate the Palestine Action prisoners who sought to stop the slaughter of innocent people, against the wishes and interests of the British government.

We are not merely observers, but witnesses to the injustice currently being dispensed by the hands of the state against people who history will no doubt vindicate, as it has done those hunger strikers who have gone before.

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Signed,

Former Palestinian Hunger Strikers (Palestine):

Shadi Zayed Saleh Odeh        

Mahmoud Radwan             

Othman Bilal                  

Mahmoud Sidqi Suleiman Radwan 

Loay Odeh     

Former Irish Hunger Strikers (Ireland):

Tommy Mc Kearney            

Laurence McKeown          

Tom McFeely              

John Nixon                  

Former Guantánamo Hunger Strikers:

Mansoor Adayfi (GTMO441)     

Lakhdar Boumediene         

Samir Naji Moqbel            

Moath Al-alwi                 

Khalid Qassim                

Ahmed Rabbani              

Sharqawi Al-Hajj             

Saeed Sarim                 

Mahmoud Al Mujahid        

Hussein AL-Marfadi            

Osama Abu Kabir             

Abdul Halim Siddiqui          

Ahmed Adnan Ahjam           

Abdel Malik Al Rahabi