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Three Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners have announced the end of their hunger strike after the government decided not to award a £2bn contract to the Israeli arms company subsidiary Elbit Systems UK – with another four who had paused their protest choosing not to continue.
Fears had been growing for the welfare of those taking part. On Wednesday, Heba Muraisi, 31, would have been on day 73 of refusing food, the same number of days as reached by the Irish republican hunger striker Kieran Doherty, who survived the longest of 10 men who died in a 1981 action. The earliest death among the Irish republicans was after 46 days, raising fears about the risk to life of the prisoners in jail awaiting trial for offences relating to protests claimed by Palestine Action.
Among their demands had been to shut down Elbit Systems, a slogan used by Palestine Action in its campaign against the company’s UK sites.
Late on Wednesday, Prisoners for Palestine said the decision not to grant Elbit Systems UK the contract, under which it would have trained 60,000 British troops a year, fulfilled a key demand. It said the company had won more than 10 public contracts since 2012, and so the decision by the Ministry of Defence marked a shift in thinking among officials.
Prisoners for Palestine also pointed to a meeting that took place on Friday between national leaders of prison healthcare and representatives of the hunger striking prisoners, at the behest of the Ministry of Justice, which it said involved discussion of prison conditions and treatment recommendations.
Kamran Ahmed, 28, who would have been on day 66 on Wednesday, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who has type 1 diabetes and has been fasting every other day and would have been on day 46, have also stopped refusing food.
Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Qesser Zuhrah, and Amu Gib, who had paused their strikes, are also ending their action.
Prisoners for Palestine said they have now all begun refeeding in accordance with health guidelines, which is itself a dangerous process that risks death if not done properly.
The Guardian understands that Umar Khalid, 22, who resumed his hunger strike on Saturday after previously pausing it, is continuing to refuse food.
Prisoners for Palestine said there had been a number of victories: “In the past few weeks alone, 500 people have signed up to take direct action against the genocidal military-industrial complex, more than the amount of people who took action with Palestine Action over its five-year campaign. During that five-year campaign, four Israeli weapons factories were shut down. Elbit Systems is living on stolen time – we will see it shut down for good, not because of the government, but because of the people.”
It also said that Muraisi’s transfer back to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey had been accepted by HMP New Hall in Wakefield, to which she was moved last year, hundreds of miles from her family and friends. Her transfer had been another demand of the hunger strikers.
Prisoners for Palestine said Hoxha had been offered a meeting with the head of the joint extremism unit at her prison, which it said “orchestrates the prisoners’ treatment as ‘terrorists’”.
Another demand had been an end to the censorship of prisoners’ communications. The group said: “During the hunger strike, some of the prisoners started receiving bulk packages of withheld mail, and in one case received an apology from prison staff for a letter that was delayed by six months. Books on the topics of Gaza and feminism have also been given after months of waiting.
“Our prisoners’ hunger strike will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance, an embarrassment for the British state. It exposed to the world Britain has political prisoners in service of a foreign genocidal regime, and has seen hundreds of people commit to take direct action in the prisoners’ footsteps.”
Gib said: “We have never trusted the government with our lives, and we will not start now. We will be the ones to decide how we give our lives to justice and liberation.”
