Belfast, Northern Ireland — On New Year’s Eve, fireworks lit the city’s streets, and not just to celebrate.
Hundreds of people show their support for Palestine Action prisoners who are currently on hunger strikes. Their chants echoed earlier murals that not only depict the city but also reflect its troubled past.
Palestinian murals are next to Irish republican ones along the Falls Road. The Palestinian wall is now known as the International Wall, which was once a symbiotic canvas for global struggles. Refaat Alareer, a late Palestinian author who died in a 20-year Israeli airstrike, wrote poetry throughout the length of the book. Local artists have hand-painted Palestinian artists’ images.
New words have recently appeared on Belfast’s famed walls. The “who hunger for justice” is blessed. The four pro-Palestinian activists who are currently on a hunger strike in British prisons are now known as the city’s political conscience, their bodies deteriorating as the days pass.
A trade union activist who spoke at the protest, Patricia McKeown, a city activist, stated, “This is not a city that will ever accept any attempt to silence our voice, our right to protest, or our right to defend human rights.”
Why wouldn’t we back the statement that “these young people are being held unjustly and in ridiculous conditions” and that they have made the ultimate decision to express their opinions, especially regarding what is happening to Palestinians? she inquired.
Belfast is the target of a hunger strike.
As the health of four detainees continues to decline behind prison walls, the protest in Belfast is a part of a growing international movement. All of them are associated with Palestine Action, and according to campaigners, they could spend more than a year in jail before their cases are heard. Supporters claim that the hunger strike has only been used as a last resort as legal avenues are exhausted.
The members of Palestine Action are being detained for their alleged involvement in break-ins at an Oxfordshire Royal Air Force base and a United Kingdom subsidiary of Elbit Systems, where equipment was allegedly damaged, and at an Oxfordshire Royal Air Force base where two military aircraft were spray-painted with red paint. The prisoners contest the charges brought against them, including violent disorder and burglary.
The prisoners want a fair trial, the release of Palestine Action, and the end of what they call “interference with their mail and reading materials.” According to a contentious anti-terror law, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government in Britain banned Palestine Action in July.
Heba Muraisi is starving on day 61. Day 55 of Teuta Hoxha is complete. on day 54, Karna Ahmed. On day 41, Lewie Chiaramello. Ahmed and Hoxha have already been admitted to the hospital. The largest hunger strike in Britain since 1981, according to campaigners, was expressly inspired by the Irish hunger strikes.
In Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army and other republican prisoners demanded the restoration of their political status in 1981. During the strike, Bobby Sands, one of the ten men who were killed, was elected to the British parliament. Margaret Thatcher took a harsh public stance, but the government ultimately sought redress as the tide turned in the back of the house.
Martin Hurson, 29, passed away on the 46th day of a prisoner. Between days 59 and 61, other people passed away, including Joe McDonnell, Francis Hughes, Michael Devine, and Raymond McCreesh. Sands went on a hunger strike for 66 days before succumbing.
Sue Pentel, a Jew for Palestine Ireland member, vividly recalls that time.
She claimed, “I was here while the hunger strike was taking place.” I recall the callous brutality of the British government allowing ten hungers to end because I experienced them, as I marched, protested, met, and protested.
Bobby Sands’s words, “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children,” are true. And we raised our families here, and they are the same people from the newest generation who show solidarity with Palestine.
Some people will die if this persists.
Pat Sheehan, who is seated beneath a Bobby Sands mural, fears that history is getting near to repeating itself. Before the hunger strike was called off on October 3, 1981, he endured 55 days of it.
In theory, I would have been the last to die because I was the longest member of the hunger strike when it ended in 1981, he said.
He claimed that his liver was failing at that point. His vision was lost. He constantly vomited bile.
Sheehan said, “You’re entering the danger zone once you’ve had 40 days.” For those who have been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days, “the hunger strikers must be very weak now physically.”
According to the quote, “Mentally, the longer the hunger strike lasts, the more they will become mentally ill.”
“I believe that some of the hunger strikers will die inevitably if it continues,” she said.
Sheehan, who is currently serving as the MLA for Sinn Fein in West Belfast, claims that those who are involved in the Palestine Action hunger strike are political prisoners.
He claimed that Ireland is probably the only nation in Western Europe with almost total support for the Palestinian cause. “Because we have a similar history of colonization, genocide, and detention.”
“So there is a lot of empathy when Irish people see what’s happening in Gaza on their TV screens.”
Ireland’s position
That political action has a growing need for empathy. Israel joined South Africa’s legal fight against the international court of justice, alleging genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel denies. In 2024, Israel formally acknowledged the state of Palestine.
Ireland has boycotted the Eurovision Song Contest and requested that its national football team be expelled from international competition while the Irish government has also taken steps to enforcing a ban on the sale of Israeli bonds.
However, many campaigners contend that the government’s actions are insufficient. They contend that Ireland’s Shannon Airport is still a source of business for the Occupied Territories Bill, which attempts to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and that it has been delayed since 2018.
The conflict in Gaza has dominated domestic politics in the northern region of Ireland, which is still a part of Britain.
Following fierce criticism from Irish republican, nationalist, left-wing, and unaligned political parties, Democratic Unionist Party education minister Paul Givan traveled to Jerusalem on a trip funded by the Israeli government, leading to a no-confidence vote.
Unionist councillors vehemently opposed Belfast City Hall’s decision to fly a Palestinian flag last month before it was ultimately approved.
Support for Israel has become ingrained in some loyalist and unionist organizations with a commitment to Britain, with Israeli flags flying in Belfast’s once-traditional loyalist areas as well.
The genocide in Gaza has been recast along the old fault lines of division because of its legacy of identity that is rooted in sectarian lines.
“Solidarity reaches Palestine”
Protesters in Belfast claim that their solidarity is grounded in humanity rather than national identity.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement’s 33-year-old Damien Quinn argued that Ireland’s history had always had a particular weight in the wake of hunger strikes.
“We are here to support the British hunger strikers today. But we are also present for the Palestinians, he said, “for those who are being brutally murdered every day.”
He claimed that Palestine Action “made it very clear that they have tried everything, including trying to lobby and sign petitions.”
“So it’s heartbreaking when I see how they are being treated in prison for fighting the genocide.”
The Belfast-based Palestinian Rita Aburahma, 25, is painfully familiar with the hunger strike.
She said, “My people don’t have the luxury of speaking up because they are in Palestine. Solidarity matters.”
“I think the hunger strikers are really brave; they have always been in the face of opposition.” How long has it taken the government to address them or take any action, in any way, worries me and many others.
If the government doesn’t take action against those people, nothing will save them. In some ways, it’s shocking, but not entirely unsurprising because the same government has been monitoring the genocide from beginning to end and never intervened.
Source: Aljazeera
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