Three Palestine protesters end hunger strike after 73 days without food
Three protesters waiting for a trial have ended their hunger strike after over two months.
Palestine Action activists Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi and Lewie Chiaramello began ‘re-feeding’ on Wednesday, the campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said.
Prisoners for Palestine group claimed the strike was ended after the UK government met their demands, allegedly denying Israeli-based defence firm Elbit Systems a £2 billion contract.
Ahmed, 28, from east London, was reportedly at ‘imminent risk of death’ last week and he was transferred to the hospital.
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The trio are some of the last remaining hunger strikers who started the action while waiting for trial over their alleged roles in Palestine Action raids and alleged criminal damage.
Umer Khalid is now the last remaining hunger striker, the campaigners say on their website.
Within the last month, four other hunger strikers, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gib, have also started to re-feed.
They were part of a group of eight detainees held on remand after being charged with offences relating to break-ins and criminal damage at Elbit Systems site in August 2024 or another action at RAF Braze Norton in Oxfordshire in June last year.
Palestine Action was banned under terrorism legislation, meaning being a member became a crime. The move sparked widespread criticism. The ban has been challenged in the High Court, with a decision expected at a later date.
Prisoners for Palestine said that national leaders of prison healthcare met representatives of the hunger strike prisoners on Friday to discuss prison conditions and treatment recommendations.
Chiaramello said: ‘It is definitely a time for celebration. A time to rejoice and to embrace our joy as revolution and as liberation.
What can happen during a hunger strike?
Ian Miller, a historian of hunger strikes in British prisons, told Metro that a hunger strike can typically play out physiologically as follows:
Days One to Seven: decreasing heart rate, physical wasting, weight loss (as bodies eat up their fat reserves in the adipose tissue.
Days Eight to Fourteen: Bodies begin using glycogen stores (energy located in the liver and muscles). Ammonia produced giving a distinctive smell. Weight loss slows down. Loss of heart mass causing a slow heart beat.
Days Fifteen Onwards: Tendencies to collapse and become bedbound. Nightmares very common early on. Physical and psychological health worsens significantly. Very disturbed sleep. ‘Raving all night’, as one hunger strike termed it in the 1920s.
Around twenty to sixty/seventy days: Patients essentially in a state of complete exhaustion, but often still conscious until around 50 days.
Over 70 days: With zero medical intervention or food, this seems to be roughly the limit of survival. In 1920, hunger striker Terence MacSwiney lasted 74 days before he died.
‘We do this because of Palestine, because we’ve been inspired, because we’ve been empowered to take action and to try to realise our dreams for a free Palestine, for an emancipated world.’
Prisoners for Palestine said: ‘While these prisoners end their hunger strike, the resistance has just begun.
‘Banning a group and imprisoning our comrades has backfired on the British state, direct action is alive and the people will drive Elbit out of Britain for good.’
Several other prisoners have been taken to hospital since the hunger strike started on November 2.
Metro has reached out to the Ministry of Justice for a comment.
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