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Pro-Palestinian activists sprayed red paint and smashed windows at the offices of the United Kingdom Labor Party in London, saying the action was in solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike in British prisons.
The Justice for Hunger Strikers group said Monday its members had targeted the ruling party, citing growing anger over what it described as the government’s refusal to engage with hunger strikers.
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The protest came as four detainees continue to refuse food while in pre-trial detention awaiting trial, sparking growing concern among doctors and activists that one or more of them could die.
Four other detainees have since ended their hunger strike but announced they planned to resume it in the new year.
Hunger strike enters critical phase
Heba Muraisi is on day 57 of her hunger strike and is being held in a West Yorkshire prison.
In a statement shared exclusively with Al Jazeera on Monday, she said: “I have been force-fed repression and I am full of rage and that is why I am doing what I am doing now. I am raising strong awareness of the unjust application of British laws by our government and I am happy that people can now see this after a year of imprisonment and human rights abuses. Keep going, keep fighting.”
The other three detainees still on hunger strike are Teuta Hoxha on day 51, Kamran Ahmed on day 50 and Lewie Chiaramello on day 36. Hoxha and Ahmed were already hospitalized during the protest.
A spokesperson for Justice for Hunger Strikers criticized the Labor government, saying it failed to intervene despite advance warning of the hunger strike.
“Despite being given two weeks’ notice of the hunger strike, the Labor government has refused to engage with the hunger strikers, their families and their legal representatives, even though they have reached a critical stage, with death a very real possibility,” the spokesperson said.
The hunger strikers are being held in five prisons across England for their alleged involvement in burglaries at the British branch of Israeli defense company Elbit Systems in Bristol and at a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire.
The detainees deny charges against them, including burglary and violent disorder, and have said the British government itself should be held accountable for its alleged role in Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
The eight hunger strikers are members of Palestine Action and were charged before the group was designated a banned organization under “anti-terrorism” laws. They are expected to spend more than a year in prison before their trial begins – well beyond the usual limit of six months on remand in the UK.
According to the group Prisoners for Palestine, their trials are expected to begin between April and January 2027.
The detainees’ demands include release on bail, an end to what they describe as interference with their mail and reading, access to a fair trial and lifting the ban on Action Palestine.
Additional requests issued this week include Muraisi’s transfer to HMP Bronzefield, closer to his family; lift non-association orders between prisoners; and allowing inmates access to prison activities and classes.
International concern
Campaigners described the protest as the biggest hunger strike in Britain since the Irish hunger strikes of 1981, saying it had sparked hundreds of solidarity demonstrations across the country.
On Friday, a group of United Nations experts – including Gina Romero, UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory – issued a statement expressing concern over the treatment of detainees.
“Hunger strikes are often a measure of last resort for people who feel their rights to protest and effective redress have been exhausted,” the experts said. “The state’s duty of care towards hunger strikers is strengthened, not diminished. »
Separately, more than 800 doctors signed a letter to Justice Secretary David Lammy urging him to intervene. The letter, written on December 17, raised “serious concerns” about the prisoners’ health, warning that they were at high risk of organ failure, irreversible neurological damage, cardiac arrhythmias and death.
Lawyers for hunger-striking detainees said last week they had launched legal proceedings against the government, alleging that it had abandoned its own prison security policy. The detainees said they wrote repeatedly to Lammy and other justice officials without receiving a response.
James Timpson, Britain’s minister of state for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending, said the government would not engage directly with the hunger strikers or their representatives.
“We are very experienced in handling hunger strikes,” Timpson said. “Over the past five years, we have recorded an average of more than 200 hunger strikes each year. I do not treat any prisoner differently from others. We have a justice system based on the separation of powers, and the independence of the judiciary is the cornerstone of our system.”
