South African Groups Urge UK to Release Pro-Palestine Hunger Strikers
"Some of the hunger strikers have now passed the 50-day mark without food and may die if urgent action is not taken," the coalition declared in a joint statement provided to media.
"We urge Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government to reflect on the historical consequences of a Thatcherite response to the hunger strike that led to the deaths of Bobby Sands and nine other Irish Republican political prisoners in 1981," the coalition of advocacy groups stated.
The organizations characterized that 1981 episode as a permanent moral blemish on Britain's record, asserting the current Labour administration appears headed down an identical path.
"We call on people of conscience in South Africa and across the world to demand that they (hunger strikers) are granted immediate bail and that their fundamental right to fair, transparent and timely trials is upheld," the statement emphasized.
British authorities arrested the protesters following alleged break-ins at Elbit Systems' UK subsidiary facility in Bristol and a Royal Air Force installation in Oxfordshire. The Israeli defense contractor operates multiple sites across Britain.
Five demonstrators refusing food are younger than 31 years old, with the youngest protester being just 20, according to the advocacy groups who described their medical status as critical.
The hunger strikers include Qesser Zuhrah, Teuta Hoxha, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed and Amu Gib.
Gib and Ahmed have required hospital admission, while Zuhrah is experiencing progressive vision loss, Muraisi suffers memory deterioration, and Hoxha battles dangerously depleted blood sugar with her skin adopting a grey pallor, the coalition reported.
"Their colleague Lewie Chiaramello is on a partial hunger strike due to diabetes, while Jon Cink and Umer Khalid – who has muscular dystrophy – recently stopped their hunger strike after being hospitalized," the groups noted.
The detained activists are demanding prison authorities cease all censorship of their external communications, including confiscated correspondence, restricted telephone access and withheld reading materials.
Their demands include immediate bail for all Palestine Action members currently detained across UK facilities, guaranteed fair and expedited trials for all imprisoned Palestine Action protesters, and removal of the group's terrorism designation. The demonstrators also seek the complete closure of all Elbit Systems operations and subsidiary companies functioning within British territory.
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