The Real Dragons: Once Again On The Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike

Liberation stands in unwavering solidarity with the seven pro-Palestine political prisoners in British jails who have undertaken a coordinated hunger strike beginning November 2, 2025, now extending beyond 45 days. This hunger strike is a collective act of resistance against imperial war, arms profiteering, and the carceral repression deployed to defend them. This is not a protest born of desperation. It is a conscious political intervention made necessary by the British state’s refusal to grant bail, ensure fair trials, allow uncensored communication, or meaningfully engage with legal representatives, while continuing to criminalise resistance to genocide. The strike has grown in scope, participation, and international significance:

  • What began with two prisoners has expanded to seven hunger strikers across multiple British prisons, many held on extended remand for over a year without conviction.
  • Prisoners have endured censorship of letters and books, denial of family contact, religious humiliation, punitive transfers, and prosecution under counter-terror legislation designed to silence dissent rather than protect public safety.
  • The hunger strike has entered a life-threatening phase:
    • Five of the seven hunger strikers have been hospitalized after prolonged starvation.
    • Kamran Ahmed was hospitalized after 18 days, later collapsing again as the strike continued. His family has publicly stated they fear for his life.
    • Teuta “T” Hoxha became the second striker hospitalized, suffering severe medical symptoms after nearly three weeks without food.
    • Medical deterioration now includes cardiac irregularities, dangerously low blood sugar, collapse, and organ stress.

Despite these developments, the UK Labour government has refused to respond, meet with lawyers, or address the prisoners’ demands. The state’s inaction comes in the face of overwhelming warning signs:

  • Over 100 medical professionals have signed a formal letter of concern, warning of the imminent risk of irreversible harm or death if the hunger strike continues without intervention.
  • The prisoners are now represented by Imran Khan & Partners, who have urgently sought ministerial engagement and warned that the government may bear responsibility for preventable deaths.
  • Families of the hunger strikers have spoken publicly of their fear, anguish, and the lack of transparency surrounding their loved ones’ conditions.

This is no longer a question of prison administration. It is a human rights emergency. The hunger strikers are being punished for direct action against Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer. Elbit’s weapons, drones, and surveillance systems are used daily against Palestinians. Britain’s protection of Elbit and repression of those who disrupt its operations reveals the material alliance between state power, arms capital, and imperial violence. A comprehensive study released by CAGE International has documented that Palestine Action’s direct-action campaign has been materially effective: forcing factory closures, disrupting supply chains, increasing insurance and security costs, and winning jury acquittals. The severity of repression is a response to this effectiveness. As the state has remained silent, international participation has intensified:

  • Stecco (Luca Dolce), an imprisoned Italian anarchist, joined the hunger strike, naming the shared struggle against the “military techno-industrial system.”
  • Jakhi McCray, incarcerated in the United States, declared a solidarity fast.
  • Manar in Gaza, living under siege, sent a message affirming that the prisoners’ hunger is inseparable from the reality of colonial violence in Palestine.
  • Bernadette McAliskey situated the strike within Ireland’s long history of hunger strikes and colonial repression, stating clearly, “This is resistance, not terrorism.”
  • Irish city and county councillors, including those from Derry City & Strabane District Council, have passed motions and signed letters in support of the prisoners and condemning Britain’s actions.
  • Major outlets and institutions, including Middle East Eye, Novara Media, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and New Internationalist, have now framed the hunger strike as a national moral and political crisis, and as part of a broader assault on the right to protest.

The Real Dragons: Once Again On The Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike

The campaign is prisoner-led. As conditions worsened and official channels failed, Prisoners for Palestine issued a clear call to ESCALATE, urging supporters to move beyond routine advocacy toward sustained, disruptive pressure on the institutions complicit in genocide and repression.

Support actions have already included:

  • Coordinated protests at seven prisons
  • A banner drop on Westminster Bridge, resulting in terrorism arrests
  • A global day of action on 25 November
  • Continued direct action against arms manufacturers and state institutions

This escalation reflects the reality – that the prisoners have already escalated with their bodies. Hunger striker Jon Cink, in his ending statement, rejected martyrdom and individualism, emphasizing that the struggle is collective and ongoing. He named the enemy clearly, imperialism and the weapons industry, and affirmed that real change requires shared risk, sustained effort, and refusal to retreat. His message was simple and resolute: power to the hunger strikers, power to the resistance. The hunger strikers have articulated five precise and just demands, which Liberation fully endorses:

An immediate end to the censorship of letters, books, and communications in prison

Immediate release on bail for all remanded Palestine Action prisoners

The right to a fair trial, including full disclosure of evidence and state–corporate collusion

De-proscription of Palestine Action, ending the criminalisation of anti-war resistance

Permanent closure of all UK Elbit Systems facilities, ending Britain’s complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide

The Real Dragons: Once Again On The Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike

These are not narrow prison grievances. They are demands that strike at the heart of imperialism, militarism, and carceral control. Liberation affirms:

  • These prisoners are political prisoners, targeted for opposing genocide and arms profiteering.
  • Hunger strikes are a legitimate and historic form of resistance when all other avenues are closed.
  • The repression they face mirrors tactics used against Black, Indigenous, migrant, and working-class movements in the United States.
  • The struggle against prisons in Britain is inseparable from the struggle for Palestinian liberation, and from the abolitionist battle at home.

We call on DSA chapters, caucuses, members, and allied organizations to:

  • Continue escalating solidarity actions in line with prisoner-led direction
  • Sustain pressure on British authorities and complicit corporations
  • Send letters and material support to the hunger strikers
  • Organize political education, screenings, and discussions, including support for completing and distributing Operation Recomply (the Filton 24 film)
  • Integrate this struggle into anti-imperialist, anti-carceral, and abolitionist organizing in the U.S.

To the Comrades: Your hunger has crossed borders. Your resistance has unified prisoners, workers, students, and oppressed peoples across continents. You have exposed the machinery of empire where it hoped to remain unseen. We stand with you, not as spectators, but as comrades. We will escalate with you. We will organize with you. We will not allow your sacrifice to be isolated, silenced, or forgotten. Until the prisoners are free. Until the arms factories are closed. Until the empire and its prisons are dismantled.

In solidarity and struggle,

Liberation


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