SA pro-Palestine groups demonstrate in support of political prisoners on hunger strike in UK jails

Palestinian solidarity groups came out to express their support for pro-Palestine political prisoners on hunger strike in British jails and held a solidarity protest at the offices of the British Council in Dunkeld West, Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The solidarity protest comes after eight prisoners have been on hunger strike while awaiting trial for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action before the group was banned under terrorism legislation.

Qesser Zuhrah, 20, and Amu Gib, 30, who are being held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, were the first two prisoners to go on hunger strike on November 2. They were joined the following day by Heba Muraisi, 31, who is at HMP New Hall. The group also includes Teuta Hoxha, 29, Kamran Ahmed, 28, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who refuses food every other day because he has diabetes.

Some of the hunger strikers have now passed the 50-day mark without food.

Several pro-Palestinian groups participated in the protests, which followed a statement issued late on Monday night signed by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP), Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) - South African Chapter, Palestine Solidarity Alliance, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, and more.

Spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Sunny Morgan, said that they came out to not only show solidarity but that they also recognised that a hunger strike is one of the most effective forms of non-violent protest, while also being one of the most dangerous, “as the person on hunger strike could die”.

“They are on hunger strike because they are alleged to have got into Israeli-linked defence firm Elbit Systems in 2024. They did that to draw attention to the UK's complicity in the genocide and the killing of innocent Palestinians.

“The other issue that they did was that they did this in the name of Palestine Action at the time when Palestine Action was not yet proscribed in South African terms - it was not yet banned or noted or classified as a terrorist organisation,” he said.

Morgan said that their act of solidarity today was to highlight the shared understanding given the country’s own history with hunger strikes, oppression and apartheid.

“We wanted to demonstrate to the hunger strikers, to the UK population, and to the wider population at large, that's all a solidarity is important if we want to make a meaningful dent in the conversation around Palestine, particularly to stop the genocide and to stop the occupation,” he said.

Morgan added that it's absolutely vital to keep talking about Palestine given the efforts by Israel operatives to try to change the narrative, “and the narrative is that they are losing the moral argument worldwide”.

“It's imperative to keep the Palestinian and Gaza issue, and the genocide front and centre in all of our conversations. Whether you're talking in a synagogue, in a mosque, in a church, in a school, in your academic place or at your place of work. We always should be talking about it and promoting the plight of the Palestinians.”

theolin.tembo@nl.coza