This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
U.N. experts are raising grave concern over the treatment and fragile health of a group of Palestine Action political prisoners who have been on hunger strike protesting their detention in Britain. The eight activists remain jailed as they await trial over charges related to their work with Palestine Action, which was banned by the British government under its Terrorism Act.
The U.N. experts, including Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian territories, said in a statement the hunger strikers are at risk of organ failure and death. They wrote, quote, “Authorities must ensure timely access to emergency and hospital care when clinically indicated, refrain from actions that may amount to pressure or retaliation, and respect medical ethics,” unquote.
Several of the activists began their hunger strike in early November.
On Sunday, Democracy Now! spoke to James Smith, Dr. James Smith, a medical doctor supporting the hunger strikers, who has volunteered in Gaza during Israel’s assault.
DR. JAMES SMITH: Three of the four who have continued with their hunger strike have now been on hunger strike for more than 50 days. They are well into a critical stage, wherein they may experience sudden or very rapid decline in their physical health and are at increasing risk of death, and that risk increases with every passing day. As a healthcare worker who’s been supporting the hunger strikers, who’s in regular contact with their next of kin, this is an extremely critical moment, and, frankly speaking, it defies comprehension that members of the government have refused even to meet with the hunger strikers in an attempt to resolve this situation. …
As a healthcare worker and someone who has worked in Gaza during the course of the genocide, I’m, of course, invested in their demands, all of their demands, but I’m particularly concerned about their access to comprehensive and quality healthcare as the hunger strike progresses, and the extent to which the state and its various appendages respect and uphold their right to healthcare and their right to dignity. The situation now is beyond critical. …
Particularly concerning is that hunger strikers have been shackled — in one instance, cuffed wrist to wrist and shackled to a prison guard while receiving treatment in hospital. The treatment of some of the hunger strikers in hospital has been such that on more than one occasion hunger strikers, when they have complained of severe symptoms, have said that they don’t want to be transferred to hospital and that they would rather stay in prison. This is an indictment of the healthcare services that are being offered to these individuals.
AMY GOODMAN: That was emergency medical doctor James Smith.
This all comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago today amidst the fragile U.S.-brokered truce with Hamas that Israel has repeatedly violated since it went into effect October 10th.
For more, we go to Leeds, England, where we’re joined by Francesca Nadin, spokesperson for Prisoners for Palestine, which is supporting the Palestine Action prisoners on hunger strike. Last year, Francesca was arrested and charged with, quote, “conspiracy to commit criminal damage,” unquote, against two Leeds banks, Barclays and JPMorgan. Both banks invest in Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. Francesca Nadin was imprisoned from July 2024 to last March, then released with an electronic monitoring curfew tag.
Thanks so much for being with us, Francesca. If you can explain exactly what’s happening, for people who are not familiar with this hunger strike? How many people are imprisoned with Palestine Action? On what grounds? And talk about their condition in prison right now.
FRANCESCA NADIN: Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.
So, for people that aren’t familiar with this, there are dozens of people in prison right now as a result of alleged actions, either with Palestine Action or the other groups that take action against the arms companies that are operating in this country. So, we are seeing now the process as the punishment, people being locked up for indefinite periods of time without even a conviction or a trial. In these cases, usually people would get bail. But not only this is not happening, without really any justification, but they’re now also being accused of being terrorists and treated as such. And this was before — most of them were put in prison before Palestine Action was even banned. So, it’s a kind of — it was the first step in a kind of coordinated witch hunt that reflects the wider repression of the pro-Palestine movement, not just here, but around the world. So, I know it’s happening over there in the U.S., as well.
So, after exhausting all these legal avenues, then we can see that the system is rigged. There’s been a lot of dodgy dealings going on behind the scenes. It’s quite clear to us that there’s political interference going on in all of these cases. The people that have taken part in this hunger strike feel like they have no other choice left to them but to take this into their own hands. The only way they have left of resisting against this persecution is to go on hunger strike. Nobody wants to go on hunger strike. It’s a really drastic, really dangerous thing to do, as James said. But they are very determined. They’re very sure of what they’re doing, because they know that this is how they can get justice for themselves and how they can motivate people to fight on their behalf on the outside, as well.
They have five demands. I think anyone would say, with any common sense, that they’re completely reasonable. So, for example, not to have censorship within the prison. They are constantly having letters, phone calls, visits, even legal visits and legal correspondence, blocked. To get bail before they go on trial, to have the right to a fair trial without this political interference, to not be labeled as terrorists, and to stop calling Palestine Action a terrorist organization, which it obviously doesn’t meet the conditions for. And most importantly for them, and this is directed at the general public around the world, is to continue shutting down these arms factories, like Elbit Systems or the various other companies that are still manufacturing and exporting arms to Israel to continue the genocide in Palestine. We know there’s no ceasefire, and the prisoners are going on hunger strike to remind everybody that it is their responsibility to take action to stop this in any way they can.
AMY GOODMAN: This is the sister of Palestine Action prisoner, 28-year-old Kamran Ahmed, speaking earlier this month.
SHAHMINA ALAM: He is on day 39 of his hunger strike. He has had two hospitalizations since the start of his hunger strike, having only come out of the hospitalization last week. Whilst they were able to stabilize his ketones, they are steeply on the rise again. But what is mostly concerning is that his heart is giving in, and his pulse is slowing down, and at the moment, he is losing half a kg every day.
AMY GOODMAN: The Palestine Action hunger strike is now the largest coordinated hunger strike in U.K. prisons since the 1981 Irish republican protests led by Bobby Sands. I believe he was 27 years old when he died, along with — was it — nine Irish republican activists. During the time of his hunger strike in prison, he was elected to Parliament. Can you talk about the parallels?
FRANCESCA NADIN: I think it’s really important to emphasize that we would never and should never compare ourselves to the Irish republican struggle. The prisoners and all of us take a lot of inspiration from them. And, in fact, the solidarity that has been shared with us from all Irish people has been incredible throughout this campaign, and it’s something that really gives the prisoners strength and helps them to keep going. But I think the key difference here is that the prisoners, yes, of course, they’re striking for justice for themselves, but, more importantly, they’re striking for the liberation of Palestinian people. They’ve taken on that struggle as their own. And for that reason, they don’t want to center themselves in this hunger strike. It’s simply a vessel for people to continue talking about Palestine at this time when the press and politicians are trying to make everybody forget about it and trying to fool people into the idea that there’s a ceasefire, and it’s obvious to all of us that that’s absolutely false. So, in that sense, it’s not a comparison.
I think the comparison that we can make is the amount of solidarity actions, the amount of mobilization, the amount of people that are being moved to take action for Palestine, to take more radical action for Palestine, to do direct action, which is something that people were perhaps a bit nervous around after the banning of Palestine Action. People are now so fired up to do this again, in a way that we haven’t seen in a very long time. So, for example, we’ve had meetings where hundreds of people have signed up for direct action. And that’s something that is a result, a direct result, of the hunger strike and is really amazing to see how inspiring the hunger strike is for people all over the place.
AMY GOODMAN: As we begin to wrap up, Heba Muraisi is one of the hunger strikers. It is said she can no longer form sentences, is struggling to maintain a conversation, added via your group, Prisoners for Palestine, that she feels weaker as each day passes. Four of the hunger strikers, including Ms. Muraisi, are accused of playing roles in the break-in at the Israeli-linked defense technology company Elbit Systems UK, November 19th, 2024, expected to go on trial of May next year. Can you talk about her condition and the charges against her?
FRANCESCA NADIN: So, of course, we are extremely worried about Heba. She’s suffering a lot as a result of this hunger strike. Almost two months without food is an incredibly long time. So, all we can do is continue fighting in every way possible to get these demands met and to end this hunger strike safely. But that is in the government’s hands. They already have blood, you know, all over their hands as a result of Palestine, but now they have the choice whether to add to that or not by letting the hunger strikers die.
So, as for their charges, they’ve been accused, they’ve not been convicted. It’s really important to say that Heba doesn’t even have any criminal convictions, and she’s been in prison for over a year now and treated in the most despicable manner that you can imagine.
So, anyone who’s been on trial against Elbit Systems or other arms companies, as I was myself, we will always say that the trial is another arena for our battle. When we go to trial, we turn the tables, and we put these arms companies in the dock. They are guilty of aiding and abetting a genocide. We will continue to accuse them of that. And until they are prosecuted for their crimes, until the politicians are prosecuted for their crimes, this struggle won’t end, whether it be a hunger strike, whether that be in the courts, whether that be on the streets with thousands of people getting arrested for supporting Palestine Action. People are not going to give up — actually, the opposite: Where there’s more repression, there’s more resistance.
AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of Greta Thunberg, known around the world as a climate activist, and now an activist for Palestinian human rights, getting arrested last week?
FRANCESCA NADIN: I think it’s just an indication of the incredible support from around the world that we have, whether that be from the U.N., whether that be from other activists. We are constantly, every single day, getting messages from people, from Tokyo to New Zealand and everywhere in between, about the support that people are showing for the prisoners. That’s an incredible thing to see. And we will encourage all those people to continue supporting and take that one step further, to apply that pressure to their governments and to the arms companies that are operating in their local areas. That’s what we need to do: shut all these places down, to stop their manufacturing arms to murder innocent Palestinian people.
FRANCESCA NADIN: Francesca Nadin, I want to thank you for being with us, spokesperson for Prisoners for Palestine, supporting the Palestine Action prisoners on hunger strike.
Next up, as CBS cancels a 60 Minute segment on U.S. deportations, we’re going to talk about an HBO documentary premiering today called Critical Incident: Death at the Border, looks at the alleged cover-up of the murder of an undocumented Mexican immigrant who died in custody at the border years ago, but under the watch of a man who is now one of the leaders of the Border Patrol. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Nunca Más (Never Again)” by La Santa Cecilia in our Democracy Now! studio.
