Victory to the Hunger Strikers!

After 73 days of hunger strike, Heba Murais, Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, and Lewie Chiaramello are ending their hunger strike following a hard-won victory.

SPSC salutes the courage, discipline, and resolve of the hunger strikers, and celebrates their collective strength in forcing concessions from a state that sought to ignore them, and we support 22 year old Umer Khalid who has resumed hunger strike after a short pause.

We repeat here the hunger strikers’ six demands: immediate bail (all prisoners had already been detained well past the six-month pre-trial limit); the release of documents necessary for a fair trial; the lifting of censorship of their communications; the de-proscription of Palestine Action; and the shutting down of Elbit Systems’ genocidal UK factories.

That some of these demands have now been met is not an act of generosity by the state, but a victory won through sacrifice and resistance. These demands are not unreasonable: they are grounded in long-established principles of fair legal process in the UK and in the UK’s obligations under international law to act against genocide.

By sustaining the hunger strike to the point where concessions were forced, it is clear that they were driven by a deep and unshakeable commitment to justice, and by a willingness to place their own bodies on the line. Their demands for immediate bail and a fair trial were never self-interested requests; they were assertions that there is nothing “terrorist” about taking a determined stand against the real terrorism of Israel’s war on Gaza. In this way, every demand raised by the hunger strikers was, and remains, a demand for the people of Palestine. When we demand dignity and freedom for political prisoners in the UK, we are demanding dignity and freedom for Palestinians, who are themselves imprisoned under occupation or forced into exile.

Palestinians understand the political prisoner’s position well: a fifth of the Palestinian population has experienced detention by Israel. Palestinian political prisoners have themselves won victories and endured immense losses through hunger strikes. The hunger strikers refuse the oppressor’s attempt to suppress their conscience and compassion; refuse the state’s insistence that solidarity with the oppressed is a crime. That refusal requires courage many of us do not possess, and discipline we can only aspire to. To force the state to retreat, even partially, is a victory of the spirit that cannot be taken away.

Starmer’s government, the UK judiciary, and the prison system did not concede out of goodwill; they conceded because collective resistance made continued intransigence untenable. The fact that not all demands have been met only underscores the necessity of continuing this struggle outside the prison walls. The hunger strike has ended, but the fight for justice has not.

As Heba Muraisi’s mother, Dunya, said during the hunger strike on 6 January:

“We are here behind you, supporting you and loving you without limits. No matter how long the night of waiting lasts, the sun of freedom will surely rise.”

Today, that sunrise has begun to break through. We commit ourselves to ensuring it reaches full daylight.

Victory to the hunger strikers

Victory to all political prisoners

Victory to Palestine