Support the Hunger Strikers!

by New Worker correspondent

Two Palestine Action hunger-strikers on the brink of death have called off their protest but six others are still refusing to eat. The Palestine Action hunger strike began on 2nd November. The prisoners who are refusing food are: Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gib who are on day 46 of hunger strike, Heba Muraisa who is on day 45, Teuta Hoxha on day 39, Kamran Ahmed on day 38 and Lewie Chiaramello on day 24. They are all refusing food as they await trial for their direct action protests in support of Palestine. 
In Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Independent Alliance bloc, was once again ignored by Starmer & Co. He told the media that “the hunger strikers are at risk of death. I asked the minister if he would do the bare minimum and meet their lawyers – a demand shared by over 50 MPs and Peers. His response? “No”. MPs laughed along. They should be ashamed of themselves”. 
Meanwhile another Corbynista MP has staged a protest outside a Surrey prison demanding urgent medical care for a hunger striker there. Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana said Qesser Zuhrah was critically ill with an immediate risk of dying after refusing food for 46 days. The MP called for an ambulance and the prisoner was transferred to hospital. Ms Zuhrah is on remand at Bronzefield jail awaiting trial on charges linked to the activities of the banned Palestine Action direct action group. 
Protesters staged a banner drop in front of the BBC office in Glasgow to call on the Corporation to end its silence regarding the pro-Palestine political prisoners on hunger strike in the UK prisons. The ‘No Pride in Genocide Glasgow’ group said they were calling on the BBC to end its silence about the hunger strikes. In a move as unsurprising as it was shameful, rather than end its silence the BBC chose to quietly remove the banner, without mentioning it or the political prisoners it supported, in its news coverage.
The silence of the BBC and most of the other bourgeois media on the hunger strikes, and the wider issue of the Starmer government’s internationally-condemned political imprisonment without trial of the ‘Filton 24’ anti-genocide activists, is part of an evident campaign of ‘omertà’ on the topic of Starmer’s campaign on activists and journalists who speak out or act against Israel’s slaughter of innocent Palestinians, many of them women and children. Despite the inclusion of many journalists, often Jewish, among his targets, the voices of the ruling class that pose as the “independent” media refuse to cover it.

Stand by the hunger strikers!

 by New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators were outside Downing Street last week in a show of solidarity with the Palestine Action prisoners on hunger-strike in British jails. Eight of the 32 political prisoners for Palestine in the UK are on hunger strike – now in its fifth week. This is the largest hunger
strike since 1981, yet the mainstream media says nothing and the Government says nothing. The protest picket in Whitehall, led by the London Irish Brigade, wants a response from the British Government. They want the hunger-strikers demands met. Palestine Action told Sky News that all eight hunger strikers, who have been denied bail, are accused of offences occurring before the group was banned and will have been in prison for well over a year before they are tried. A judicial review challenge to the proscription has concluded with judges reserving their decision until a later date.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Independent Alliance bloc in Parliament, says that the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has rejected his invitation to meet to resolve the matter by saying "considering the ongoing proceedings, it would not be appropriate for me to meet with you to discuss the situation" while claiming that "the safety of those who live and work in our prisons remains our paramount concern".
Corbyn, who visited one of the hunger-strikers this week, describes Lammy’s refusal as “astonishing… given the extremely serious and time-sensitive nature of the situation”.
Amu Gib, one of Corbyn’s constituents, is being held at Bronzefield jail in Ashford, Surrey.
Corbyn said that Lammy’s response failed to address “the very serious allegations of inconsistent and unequal medical treatment” of the detainees and repeated his request for a meeting.
And in the House of Commons Labour MP John McDonnell criticised the lack of engagement from the government saying that the justice secretary had failed to respond to previous letters on the matter. He said "this is a matter of urgency and I would've expected at least the courtesy of some response even if he's not willing to meet us". Forty-one MPs have
signed an early day motion calling on Lammy to intervene “urgently to ensure the treatment
of the prisoners is humane”.