Category World News

To the government of the United Kingdom:

We, the undersigned, write to you today as survivors of state violence.

We are a collective of former hunger strikers from Palestine, Ireland and Guantánamo Bay. Hunger strikes end only when power intervenes, or when people die. We learned, through pain, permanent damage, and watching our comrades fall, how states behave when prisoners have no choice but to refuse the only right afforded to them: food.

As such, we write in uncompromising solidarity with the hunger strikers held today in British prisons: Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed, Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Lewie Chiaramello, and Muhammad Umer Khalid. They are imprisoned on remand, without trial and without conviction. For some, their remand has lasted over a year, and for most, they will not see trial for two.

The UK government has chosen prolonged remand, isolation and their censorship. It has chosen to restrict their contact with loved ones, allow medical neglect, and deployed the language of terror in an insidious attempt to deliberately strip these prisoners of public sympathy and basic rights before any trial takes place.

We cannot forget what the hunger strikers today stand for. They stand for Palestine. They stand for dismantling the infrastructure of weapons that kills Palestinians. They stand for the end of the apartheid regime implemented by the Israeli government. They stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners. They stand for the complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

For years, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to systematic abuse inside Israeli prisons, including well-documented torture, extreme sexual violence, medical neglect, and death in custody. Yet, the UK government, through its unwavering support for the Israeli state continues to choose to be complicit in its actions. It chooses to continue to arm Israel and shield Israeli officials from accountability while Palestinian bodies – men, women and children – are violated and destroyed in their streets, in their homes, and behind bars.

The Palestine Action political prisoners began their hunger strike when they had no other choice. The state’s decision to rely on the use of the classification of “terror” to enforce the systematic repression of those who refuse to conform has left them with no other alternative as they seek the rights they are entitled to by law.

This is not a new phenomenon: the use of the word “terror” has long been used to manufacture fear, to poison public perception, to justify the repeated violation of even the most basic human rights. Once this label is attached, rights become conditional, liberty becomes transactional, and the presumption of innocence evaporates. The rule of law that is so proudly claimed to be upheld is swiftly desecrated in the face of a singular word, deployed by unscrupulous politicians determined to protect their own interests: “terrorist”.

The proscription of Palestine Action was not about safety. It was about control. The repeated and flagrant breaches of sub judice were not about convincing the public that this was a dangerous organisation; it was about condemning the prisoners before they stood trial. It was about isolating them, criminalising solidarity, and sending a warning to anyone who might speak or organise against the Israeli war machine.

No trial held under an atmosphere of state-manufactured fear can be deemed as fair, and no jury exposed to decades of terrorism rhetoric can operate free of bias. These prisoners were smeared the moment the announcement of their arrest made mention of a “terrorism connection”, despite those proceedings not having taken place.

We therefore demand the following:

1. An urgent ministerial meeting with families and legal representatives to agree on actions that will preserve the lives of the hunger strikers. Immediate bail for the Palestine Action prisoners (known as the Filton 24) and all hunger strikers.

2. Dropping of terror charges designed to criminalise dissent.

3. Fair trial conditions free from fear-driven narrative and political interference.

4. Immediate access to independent medical care chosen by the prisoners.

5. An end to censorship and restrictions on family visits.

In 1981, Britain chose to let the Irish hunger strikers die in the Long Kesh prison. In the 2000s, Britain chose silence over the plight of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. For decades, Britain – along with other governments – continued to choose inaction in Palestine. Each time, British officials claimed responsibility rested elsewhere. Each time, history recorded the truth.

The Suffragettes, despite being force-fed and labelled as terrorists, are today celebrated as heroes and freedom fighters. The Long Kesh prisoners, despite the smears they faced, are now seen as a vital part of the peace achieved under the Good Friday Agreement. The Guantánamo Bay prisoners, despite their inhumane treatment and public consent for torture, remained untried and were largely released without conviction.

Just as they were all vindicated, history will too vindicate the Palestine Action prisoners who sought to stop the slaughter of innocent people, against the wishes and interests of the British government.

We are not merely observers, but witnesses to the injustice currently being dispensed by the hands of the state against people who history will no doubt vindicate, as it has done those hunger strikers who have gone before.

Signatories:

Shadi Zayed Saleh Odeh, Palestine

Mahmoud Radwan, Palestine

Othman Bilal, Palestine

Mahmoud Sidqi Suleiman Radwan, Palestine

Loay Odeh, Palestine

Tommy McKearney, Ireland

Laurence McKeown, Ireland

Tom McFeely, Ireland

John Nixon, Ireland

Mansoor Adayfi (GTMO441), Guantanamo

Lakhdar Boumediene, Guantanamo

Samir Naji Moqbel, Guantanamo

Moath Al-Alwi, Guantanamo

Khalid Qassim, Guantanamo

Ahmed Rabbani, Guantanamo

Sharqawi Al-Hajj, Guantanamo

Saeed Sarim, Guantanamo

Mahmoud Al Mujahid, Guantanamo

Hussein Al-Marfadi, Guantanamo

Osama Abu Kabir, Guantanamo

Abdul Halim Siddiqui, Guantanamo

Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Guantanamo

Abdel Malik Al Rahabi, Guantanamo

Ahmed Elrashidi, Guantanamo

A second round of voting has been held in Myanmar’s controversial election, which critics say will cement the military’s grip on power. Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng has visited rebel-controlled areas where millions of civilians, living in fear of attacks, are excluded from the process.

A Palestinian man has died from gunshot wounds after Israeli forces opened fire on his vehicle in Hebron, amid escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza shows no signs of abating.

Shaker Falah al-Jaabari, 58, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning after being shot the previous night in eastern Hebron, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The Israeli army said forces opened fire at a vehicle that accelerated towards soldiers in the Haret al-Sheikh neighbourhood; however, in a later statement, the military acknowledged that an initial review found no evidence that the incident was an intentional attack.

Israeli authorities seized his body following the shooting, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. The Palestine Red Crescent Society told Al Jazeera that its crew was prevented from reaching the man.

The killing came as Israeli forces besieged a house in the Old City of Nablus on Sunday, with undercover units infiltrating neighbourhoods before military vehicles stormed the city from multiple directions.

Two Palestinians were arrested as troops deployed across several areas and live gunfire echoed through the eastern market, according to Palestinian security sources cited by Wafa.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces raided a Palestinian wedding in occupied East Jerusalem, firing live ammunition and stun grenades at attendees.

Several men were arrested, including the groom, with footage showing soldiers inside the hall and security forces throwing stun grenades as guests were forced outside.

The escalation follows stark findings from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which documented that 240 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank in 2025, including 55 children.

The year also saw more than 1,800 settler attacks, the highest since the United Nations began recording such incidents in 2006, with five attacks occurring each day on average.

More than 1,190 Palestinians were injured in these attacks, with 838 wounded directly by Israeli settlers, an average of two Palestinians injured daily by settlers alone.

The violence coincides with a landmark UN human rights report released on Wednesday, labelling Israeli policies as resembling “apartheid”, the first time a UN rights chief has used the term.

Volker Turk called for Israel to “dismantle all settlements”, describing a “systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank”.

Hours after the report’s publication, Israel cleared the final hurdle to begin constructing the controversial E1 settlement project near Jerusalem.

A government tender published on Tuesday seeks developers for 3,401 housing units on land that critics say would effectively bisect the West Bank and prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Initial construction could begin within weeks, according to the anti-settlement group Peace Now.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who oversees settlement policy, declared in August that “the Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” adding that “every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea”.

Settlement expansion drives mass displacement

Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim, reporting from a Bedouin camp in Ras al-Auja being dismantled under Israeli orders, described it as “one of the largest shepherding communities in the West Bank”.

She noted that 26 families had already left, with 20 more preparing to depart.

“The other location is completely unknown; they still don’t know where they’re going to go,” Ibrahim said, adding that Israeli settlers were “coming in and intimidating people” as filming took place.

More than half a million Israeli settlers now live in West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.