{"id":308710,"date":"2025-12-01T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=308710"},"modified":"2025-11-29T07:21:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:21:01","slug":"hunger-strike-of-pro-palestine-political-prisoners-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/hunger-strike-of-pro-palestine-political-prisoners-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunger-Strike of Pro-Palestine Political Prisoners in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish, Jewish Protesters Demand BBC End Silence on \u2018Palestine Action\u2019 Hunger-Strikers<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Image via Sara Chessa<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Nov 2025 –\u00a0Sara Chessa <\/a>attended yesterday\u2019s protest by the London Irish Brigade and anti-Zionist Jews<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Solidarity with Palestine is part of Irish culture, and this was clearly visible on Monday (24 Nov) evening in Portland Place, in front of the BBC<\/em>. Here, the London Irish Brigade organised a protest, backed by Holocaust survivors and other Jewish anti-Zionists, in support of the six activists currently on hunger strike in prison<\/a> to demand an end to the British state\u2019s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. As prisoners of conscience, they are refusing food because they feel they have no other legal way left to be heard.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/em> protest amid blackout<\/h2>\n

The protesters gathered outside the BBC<\/em> headquarters to denounce the mainstream media blackout surrounding the hunger strike launched by the six political prisoners<\/a> who, as human rights activists, targeted the factories and offices of Elbit Systems, Israel\u2019s largest weapons manufacturer and a key supplier of munitions used against Palestinians. In the UK alone, Elbit holds \u00a3355 million in contracts<\/a>, with an additional \u00a32.7 billion deal<\/a> awaiting the Ministry of Defence\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators accused the BBC<\/em> of turning a blind eye to the escalating use of repression against people exposing the UK\u2019s deep ties to the arms industry supplying Israel. The messages on the banners made the protesters\u2019 accusations against the BBC<\/em> and the British state unmistakably clear. One large banner on the pavement, styled in the familiar block font of the broadcaster\u2019s logo, read simply: \u201cBBC<\/em> Complicit.\u201d Nearby, another declared: \u201cBBC<\/em> pen pushers, blood on your hands,\u201d directly accusing the corporation of helping obscure the consequences of Britain\u2019s military and political alignment with Israel.<\/p>\n

Liberation<\/h2>\n

Even more detailed was another banner condemning the treatment of the prisoners and the secrecy surrounding their prosecution:<\/p>\n

Political prisoners in UK gulag denied fair trial, Crown Prosecution Service refusing evidence of collusion with Elbit! \u2013 Now six are on hunger strike! BBC, why are you silent?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Signs were also calling for the liberation of the Filton 24<\/a>. It\u2019s the group Ahmed, Hoxha, Muraisi and Zurah \u2013 four of the activists now on hunger strike \u2013 are part of. They were prosecuted for a 2024 action targeting an Elbit Systems plant in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

The longest banner was a call towards civil society. \u201cSupport the hunger-strikers,\u201d it read, highlighting the necessity to raise awareness on the meaning of the battle. In fact, the hunger strike, which started in early November, represents a desperate attempt to bring the state back to international law and an actual alignment with the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, which not only asks the states to punish any possible extermination plan carried out against any people, but to take every possible action to prevent it from happening.<\/p>\n

Core demands<\/h2>\n

The five core demands of the hunger strikers include the end to prison censorship (seizure of letters and monitored phone calls); an immediate bail, as some prisoners have been held for two years without conviction; the right to a fair trial, with full disclosure of key documents exchanged between state officials and arms manufacturers; the de-proscription of Palestine Action with a stop to the use of counter-terror laws to criminalise dissent; and the shutdown of Elbit, eventually ending the collaboration of the British state with a company deeply implicated in violations of international law.<\/p>\n

Protesters argued that while activists are risking their lives to expose state-corporate collusion, the BBC<\/em> has failed to report on the hunger strike entirely.<\/p>\n

Called on stage by Irish Brigades\u2019 Chair Frank Glynn, Patrick Reynolds recalled many figures of the Irish resistance.<\/p>\n

Thatcher dared to call Bobby Sands<\/a> a terrorist, but Bobby Sands was a freedom fighter. He was living in occupied territory. He grew up under occupation, and he fought to see a free Ireland. Today, Ireland is still occupied, but we\u2019ll win in the end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The parallels with the present are evident. Today, those fighting for the liberation of Palestine from a colonial power are frequently labelled by the British establishment as terrorists, and this is the lie that the BBC<\/em>, according to the protesters, perpetuates when it ignores the freedom fighters of today.<\/p>\n

Reynolds added:<\/p>\n

People on hunger strike represent us. They represent truth. They represent the march of history that won\u2019t be stopped. They\u2019re marching through the lies that Starmer put out. And they will win in the end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go to Original – thecanary.co<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Nov 2025 –\u00a0Irish, Jewish Protesters Demand BBC End Silence on Hunger-Strikers – The nonviolent group Palestine Action was labelled \u2018terrorist\u2019 and its members can be jailed for 14 years for trying to prevent weapons from reaching Israel. The hunger-strikers have five demands for the UK government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":308716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[229,3287,2642,1894,87,865,1762,88,3526,2552,651,427,2418,880,639],"class_list":["post-308710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","tag-activism","tag-anti-zionism","tag-anti-imperialism","tag-bbc","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-jewish-anti-zionist-congress","tag-jews","tag-justice","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-rights","tag-state-terrorism","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308723,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308710\/revisions\/308723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}