To the federal government of the UK:
We, the undersigned, write to you right this moment as survivors of state violence.
We’re a collective of former starvation strikers from Palestine, Eire and Guantánamo Bay. Starvation strikes finish solely when energy intervenes, or when folks die. We discovered, by way of ache, everlasting harm, and watching our comrades fall, how states behave when prisoners don’t have any alternative however to refuse the one proper afforded to them: meals.
As such, we write in uncompromising solidarity with the starvation strikers held right this moment in British prisons: Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Lewie Chiaramello, and Muhammad Umer Khalid. They’re imprisoned on remand, with out trial and with out conviction. For some, their remand has lasted over a 12 months, and for many, they won’t see trial for 2.
The UK authorities has chosen extended remand, isolation and their censorship. It has chosen to limit their contact with family members, enable medical neglect, and deployed the language of terror in an insidious try and intentionally strip these prisoners of public sympathy and fundamental rights earlier than any trial takes place.
We can’t overlook what the starvation strikers right this moment stand for. They stand for Palestine. They stand for dismantling the infrastructure of weapons that kills Palestinians. They stand for the tip of the apartheid regime carried out by the Israeli authorities. They stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners. They stand for the entire liberation of Palestine, from the river to the ocean.
For years, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to systematic abuse inside Israeli prisons, together with well-documented torture, excessive sexual violence, medical neglect, and demise in custody. But, the UK authorities, by way of its unwavering assist for the Israeli state continues to decide on to be complicit in its actions. It chooses to proceed to arm Israel and protect Israeli officers from accountability whereas Palestinian our bodies – males, girls and youngsters – are violated and destroyed of their streets, of their houses, and behind bars.
The Palestine Motion political prisoners started their starvation strike once they had no different alternative. The state’s resolution to depend on using the classification of “terror” to implement the systematic repression of those that refuse to evolve has left them with no different different as they search the rights they’re entitled to by legislation.
This isn’t a brand new phenomenon: using the phrase “terror” has lengthy been used to fabricate concern, to poison public notion, to justify the repeated violation of even probably the most fundamental human rights. As soon as this label is connected, rights change into conditional, liberty turns into transactional, and the presumption of innocence evaporates. The rule of legislation that’s so proudly claimed to be upheld is swiftly desecrated within the face of a singular phrase, deployed by unscrupulous politicians decided to guard their very own pursuits: “terrorist”.
The proscription of Palestine Motion was not about security. It was about management. The repeated and flagrant breaches of sub judice weren’t about convincing the general public that this was a harmful organisation; it was about condemning the prisoners earlier than they stood trial. It was about isolating them, criminalising solidarity, and sending a warning to anybody who may communicate or organise in opposition to the Israeli conflict machine.
No trial held beneath an environment of state-manufactured concern could be deemed as truthful, and no jury uncovered to a long time of terrorism rhetoric can function freed from bias. These prisoners have been smeared the second the announcement of their arrest made point out of a “terrorism connection”, regardless of these proceedings not having taken place.
We due to this fact demand the next:
1. An pressing ministerial assembly with households and authorized representatives to agree on actions that may protect the lives of the starvation strikers. Rapid bail for the Palestine Motion prisoners (generally known as the Filton 24) and all starvation strikers.
2. Dropping of terror prices designed to criminalise dissent.
3. Honest trial circumstances free from fear-driven narrative and political interference.
4. Rapid entry to unbiased medical care chosen by the prisoners.
5. An finish to censorship and restrictions on household visits.
In 1981, Britain selected to let the Irish starvation strikers die within the Lengthy Kesh jail. Within the 2000s, Britain selected silence over the plight of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. For many years, Britain – together with different governments – continued to decide on inaction in Palestine. Every time, British officers claimed accountability rested elsewhere. Every time, historical past recorded the reality.
The Suffragettes, regardless of being force-fed and labelled as terrorists, are right this moment celebrated as heroes and freedom fighters. The Lengthy Kesh prisoners, regardless of the smears they confronted, at the moment are seen as a significant a part of the peace achieved beneath the Good Friday Settlement. The Guantánamo Bay prisoners, regardless of their inhumane remedy and public consent for torture, remained untried and have been largely launched with out conviction.
Simply as they have been all vindicated, historical past will too vindicate the Palestine Motion prisoners who sought to cease the slaughter of harmless folks, in opposition to the needs and pursuits of the British authorities.
We’re not merely observers, however witnesses to the injustice at the moment being allotted by the arms of the state in opposition to individuals who historical past will little question vindicate, because it has achieved these starvation strikers who’ve gone earlier than.
Signatories:
Shadi Zayed Saleh Odeh, Palestine
Mahmoud Radwan, Palestine
Othman Bilal, Palestine
Mahmoud Sidqi Suleiman Radwan, Palestine
Loay Odeh, Palestine
Tommy McKearney, Eire
Laurence McKeown, Eire
Tom McFeely, Eire
John Nixon, Eire
Mansoor Adayfi (GTMO441), Guantanamo
Lakhdar Boumediene, Guantanamo
Samir Naji Moqbel, Guantanamo
Moath Al-Alwi, Guantanamo
Khalid Qassim, Guantanamo
Ahmed Rabbani, Guantanamo
Sharqawi Al-Hajj, Guantanamo
Saeed Sarim, Guantanamo
Mahmoud Al Mujahid, Guantanamo
Hussein Al-Marfadi, Guantanamo
Osama Abu Kabir, Guantanamo
Abdul Halim Siddiqui, Guantanamo
Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Guantanamo
Abdel Malik Al Rahabi, Guantanamo
Ahmed Elrashidi, Guantanamo
The views expressed on this article are the authors’ personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
