Student groups at the University of Manchester in England and Edinburgh University in Scotland have launched solidarity hunger strikes in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ strike for freedom and dignity that have now extended for days of action in support of the prisoners’ struggle. Their campaign is now spreading across Europe, with activists in Madrid, Turin, Brussels, London and elsewhere joining growing solidarity strikes that highlight the prisoners’ demands and their urgent calls for support.

After 1500 Palestinian prisoners launched their hunger strike on 17 April for a series of demands, including an end to the denial of family visits, the right to access distance higher education, appropriate medical care and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, protests across Palestine and around the world have demanded freedom for Palestinian prisoners and urged the immediate implementation of their demands. Now in their 17th day without food, strikers are facing harsh repression – including denial of legal visits, frequent transfers, and isolation of strike leaders – inside Israeli prisons.

In Palestine, a number of solidarity hunger strikes and fasts have been organized to support the prisoners, including a large one-day strike in Gaza, a five-day strike by Lina Khattab and fellow Bir Zeit University students who are themselves former prisoners, and ongoing open-ended solidarity strikes in the protest tents in Qalqilya, Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere. A call has been issued from Palestine for a day-long solidarity strike by artists and other cultural workers on 3-4 May, linking with ongoing art actions by Decolonize this Place in support of the strikers.

Internationally, there have been several solidarity fasts in support of the hunger strikers, including a one-day hunger strike organized by lawyers, legal workers and law students with the National Lawyers Guild. Students have taken the lead in organizing these international solidarity strikes, with groups at the University of Manchester and Edinburgh University organizing ongoing, sustained strikes in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners.

On 27 April, five students who work with the BDS Campaign at the University of Manchester launched a hunger strike; the campaign has been subject to campus repression and silencing of activities, including university administrators’ attempts to shut down Israeli Apartheid Week.

“Decades ago, university students were key in demanding the end of apartheid of South Africa. University students have paid a key role in many anti-racist struggles, including Black Lives Matter. The struggle for justice for the Palestinians is no different, they have 70 years of unremitting mistreatment, including thousands of deaths, systemic expulsions, institutional racism and apartheid. We stand in solidarity with them,” wrote the strikers.

“The pain, solidarity and hunger will keep us in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers as they continue their struggle,” said Huda Ammori, one of the organizing students. The students have been chronicling their experiences on hunger strike in a series of videos (below) published by the Middle East Monitor.

Next, students affiliated with the Edinburgh University Communist Society launched a hunger strike on campus to build support for Palestinian political prisoners. Like the Manchester students, they linked their own campaign as part of local and global justice movements – and their Israeli Apartheid Week event was also repressed by university administration.

“As committed Irish republicans, we often look to the socialist martyrs of 1981, and the sacrifice they made. We know, that occupying a building, or holding a strike will only achieve so much- but by putting our bodies through the potential dangers of a hunger strike, we are hoping people will realise just how committed we are to Palestine,” wrote the students, who called on the university to boycott and divest from apartheid Israel.

Now, the strike is growing as fellow student and community groups across Europe have launched a call for hunger strikes starting 3 May. Confirmed participants are coming from Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Ireland. “As European citizens, we feel a responsibility to support the Palestinian cause for an end of the occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism. It is not only our right, but also our responsibility to end this injustice…We hope everyone who stands with Palestine, including MPs, will show their support. Through our actions, we hope to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause in our respective towns and cities across Europe,” write the organizers in their call to action.

Students with Progetto Palestina in Turin, Italy are launching their hunger strike on 4 May, even as they organize a campus event in support of the strikers on 3 May, with more cities planning to join in, including activists in Madrid, Brussels, Bologna, Rome and elsewhere.

In London, Ayssar Shamallakh, a British-Palestinian activist who has been organizing in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike with the 17 April Group, announced on 2 May that he is launching an open hunger strike in London, with a gathering at Parliament Square, next to the statue of Nelson Mandela.

Numerous events and actions are being organized in the coming days in support of Palestinian political prisoners, with demonstrations and gatherings in Turin, Cardiff, Charleroi, Coventry, Paris, Johannesburg, Brussels and Dearborn on 3 May, and in Chicago, Middletown, London, Oslo, Belfast, Dublin, Newbridge and Galway on 4 May, with ongoing events stretching into the future in New York, Brussels, Berlin and elsewhere.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice in Palestine to join these solidarity hunger strike campaigns, participate in announced protests, or organize events, demonstrations and actions in your own city to support the hunger strikers and build solidarity for their actions.

Join the Europe hunger strike action: https://www.facebook.com/events/165331540662107/

Send your events and actions to us at samidoun@samidoun.net, on Facebook, or use the form to tell us about your actions. We will be regularly updating our international list of events and actions to support the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.

Videos from the Manchester strikers

Day 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5n4FIA2qhc

Day 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyMPOSOYsck

Day 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WV4761lB6U

Day 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLeOMrzm1lo

As Palestinian prisoners entered their 16th day of hunger strike, the most severely ill Palestinian prisoners – those held in the Ramle prison clinic, the subject of demands for its replacement – confirmed their participation in the Strike of Freedom and Dignity with a process of escalating protest.

Launched on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, by 1500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the strike has a series of demands, including an end to the denial of family visits, appropriate medical care and treatment, the right to access higher education and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Prisoners engaged in the strike have been subjected to a series of repressive measures, including confiscation of personal belongings, frequent repressive night raids, denial of family visits, frequent transfers and denial of legal visits. In particular, the banning of striking prisoners, except for a few held in Ofer and Ashkelon, from legal visits has inhibited external communication with the prisoners about their health and conditions.

The announced program of the prisoners in the Ramla clinic included returning all three meals on 17 April, 24 April, 26 April and 29 April. Moving forward, they are returning all three meals on 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 May. In the latter two weeks, the sick prisoners will also reject medication to support the broader hunger strike.  Prisoners in the Ramle prison clinic are dealing with a number of severe medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, severe injuries and wounds and severe physical disabilities, frequently caused by wounds by Israeli occupation soldiers prior to or at the time of arrest.

Meanwhile, the prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that they would soon be announcing escalating steps regarding the strike and the struggle inside Israeli prisons, saying that the leadership of the prison organization is conducting extensive internal consultations to announce new steps of action and escalation behind bars for freedom and dignity.

Tomorrow, 3 May, the Israeli Supreme Court will consider a petition from Adalah and the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission demanding that strikers be permitted legal visits; members of the Knesset from Palestinian Arab parties in ’48 Palestine and representatives of human rights organizations are expected to attend the 11:30 am hearing.  This comes after lawyers’ demands for an immediate visit with longest-consecutively-held Palestinian prisoner Karim Younes, jailed for nearly 35 years, were rejected by the Haifa District Court.

Throughout Palestine, support for the strikers continued in streets and squares of cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48. An increasing number of former prisoners joined solidarity strikes in support of the ongoing strike inside prison; in Qalqilya, eight former prisoners are on hunger strike in the prisoner support tent. Palestinian Jerusalemite youth organizer Sumoud Abu Khdeir was reported to be released on Monday evening after she was seized by Israeli occupation forces as she participated in a youth mural event to support the prisoners near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. She was ordered to stay away from the area for two weeks and to pay a financial bail of 1000 NIS ($277 USD).

A number of Bir Zeit University students, themselves former prisoners, continued their hunger strike in support of the prisoners. Over 60 students at the university – amid hundreds of imprisoned Palestinian students in total – are held in Israeli jails. Lina Khattab, Jihad Manasra, Yousef Barghouthi, Abed Barbar, Yasser Abu Rmaileh, Osama Sbeih, Mahmoud Muna and Mohammed Badr launched their strike on 30 April to support the prisoners and raise the profile of the strike among students.

Solidarity hunger strikes also continued in the Arab region and internationally. On 2 May, a group of San Diego organizations are organizing a solidarity fast in the Southern California city to support the striking prisoners. Meanwhile, Tunisian students from Gabès have launched a hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, reported Asra Voice. Former Lebanese prime minister Salim al-Hoss also announced a one-day hunger strike to support Palestinian prisoners.

The students in Tunisia joined students at the University of Manchester, who are on their 5th day of a support strike for the Palestinian prisoners. At the University of Edinburgh, the Communist Society launched a hunger strike on 30 April to support the Palestinian prisoners. “We are merely a few days into what has proved already to be a grueling endeavor- both physically and mentally. Yet for the Palestinian prisoners two weeks into their hunger strike, one can only begin to imagine the torment, yet bravery they are experiencing. Faced with enslavement under the toxicity of Zionism, hundreds of Comrades, from all factions of Palestinian resistance have lit a fuse for the rest of the world when darkness threatens to engulf us. It is a fuse that we believe must be seized upon, and utilised to spark a greater flame,” wrote the Edinburgh strikers.

These actions came as mass marches for 1 May, International Workers’ Day, took to the streets of cities around the world with active participation by Palestinian communities and Palestine solidarity organizations, emphasizing the importance of supporting the Palestinian prisoners’ strike at this critical time. In major global cities, including New York, Dublin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, Athens, London, Cologne, Wuppertal, Malmo, Paris, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, Liege, Copenhagen, Lausanne, Oakland and elsewhere, the call of the Palestinian hunger strikers and the Palestinian people resonated on 1 May.

Further protests will take place, in addition to the San Diego event, in Helsinki, Finland and in Athens, Greece, where a large mobilization is planned at 6 pm organized by a wide range of Palestine solidarity and support groups throughout Greece. The mobilization follows a strong presence by many political parties and trade unions in the Athens May First demonstration with strong attention to the Palestinian struggle.

As the world marks the first of May, International Workers’ Day, Palestinian prisoners on Israeli jails are engaged in their 15th day of hunger strike, entering their third week without food. 1500 Palestinian prisoners launched the strike on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, to demand a series of basic rights: an end to the denial of family visits, appropriate medical care and treatment, the right to continue education, and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.

The prisoners have been met with harsh repression, including the denial of legal and family visits, isolation of strike leaders, confiscation of clothing, blankets and other personal items and frequent raids by repressive units, often late at night. Large numbers of hunger strikers have been transferred repeatedly from prison to prison. With only a few strikers in Ofer and Ashkelon prisons so far allowed legal visits, tracking developments in the strikers’ health and daily conditions is highly difficult for Palestinian organizations.

The campaign of prison transfers continues; Asra Voice reported the transfer of 45 prisoners from Ohli Kedar prison to Gilboa, Megiddo and Ofer prisons, while 10 prisoners were reportedly taken from Gilboa to the Negev desert prison and then returned to Gilboa only hours later.  The transfers, which are particularly physically exhausting to hunger strikers consuming only salt and water for 15 days, continued on Monday. Bilal Ajamieh and Haithem Hamdan were tranferred from Ashkelon to Eshel prison, while strike leaders Nasser Abu Hmeid, Anas Jaradat and Mohammed al-Khalidi were transferred from Ayalon Ramle prison to Nitzan prison. meanwhile, Mohammed Abbas was transferred from Nitzan to Gilboa prison, and Musallam Thabet and Ahmad Waridat taken from Nitzan to an unknown location.

Abdel-Fattah Dawla, the head of the media committee for the strike, said that attempts on the part of the Israel Prison Service to create back-channel negotiations that exclude strike leaders like Marwan Barghouthi, named the exclusive spokesperson for the Fateh prisoners who launched the call for the hunger strike, have failed. Dawla said in Ma’an News that the prisoners have consensus on their leadership and will not accept the creation of an alternative leadership to negotiate on their demands. Dawla also said that Karim Younes, another strike leader and the longest consecutively-held Palestinian prisoner, stated that he would not deal with the Israeli occupation authorities as a negotiator in the context of the exclusion of Barghouthi.

Following on Younes’ hearing yesterday in the Haifa district court, lawyers Yamen Zeidan and Suleiman Shaheen said that no clear response was given to their petition for a legal visit with Younes, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel who has served over 34 years in Israeli prisons. The petition was partially accepted and partially rejected, and the prison administration was given until Thursday to respond in writing regarding a visit with Younes. According to Ma’an News, the lawyers emphasized that this means only further delay and attempts to isolate Younes and his fellow strikers.

Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Dalaysheh, from Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, on his 15th day of hunger strike, lost his mother on Sunday, 30 April. Sentenced to 24 years in Israeli prison, he has completed 12 years of his sentence. As a Palestinian prisoner and a hunger striker, he is denied visits with his family or even a telephone call to his loved ones at his time of loss. Held in isolation in Saba prison and denied legal and family visits, Dalaysheh reportedly may not be informed of his mother’s passing; he lost his father three years ago, also imprisoned and denied the comfort of his family.

Mass Palestinian support for the strikers continued, as did repression of support actions and arrests of organizers by the Israeli occupation. Sumoud Abu Khdeir, an active Palestinian youth organizer in Jerusalem, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on 1 May in Jerusalem after a group of young Palestinian men and women gathered at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, creating a cloth mural of support for the Palestinian prisoners and writing the names of the Palestinian prisoners with messages of solidarity for their hunger strike. The mural in support of the prisoners was also confiscated by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem.  The young Palestinians were forced from the area by occupation forces.

In Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, Israeli occupation forces fired a heavy barrage of tear gas on protesters supporting the prisoners’ strike on Sunday night, 30 April; the fusillade of tear gas caused the support tent for the prisoners to catch on fire and blaze.  A number of Palestinians suffered tear gas inhalation, but none were wounded by the fire.

Many events are taking place throughout occupied Palestine in support of the hunger strikers, including events in Ramallah and el-Bireh, Nablus, Gaza City, Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Arara; events for International Workers’ Day are highlighting imprisoned Palestinian workers and their struggle for freedom.

International events in support of the prisoners continued, with wide participation in protests, festivals and demonstrations for International Workers’ Day. From within Israeli prisons, statements from Palestinian prisoners were issued directed to the international movements for justice and liberation, urging support for Palestine on International Workers’ Day.

Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, issued a statement to the international left on 1 May. “Greetings to you from inside the prisons and cells of Zionism, and salutes to all those who celebrate today, who march and participate in this day, in the lighting of the flame of this immortal, human, day, the first of May, the day of workers, the people, and the struggling classes. This is the day in which we together renew our primary commitment to defend the rights and interests of the impoverished and struggling classes with a fundamental interest in progress and change, the classes that were and still are the front line of the revolution, standing against the savage forces of capitalism, occupation, colonialism and racism…One of our common tasks is to defend the rights of refugees everywhere and to defend migrants and the impoverished classes, especially those living in the midst of imperialist countries,” said Sa’adat.

Kamil Abu Hanish, a leader of the hunger strike representing PFLP prisoners, also released a statement for the First of May: “Today, we call upon you, the fighters for freedom and justice in the world, the workers’ movements, the strugglers for socialism, the movements of revolution, to escalate your support for our struggle, for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian prisoners….We urge you to intensify and build the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the occupation state and the corporations like Hewlett-Packard and G4S that profit from its imprisonment, apartheid and colonialism. The workers’ movements, the movements of the popular classes, the movements of the oppressed, can and must take part in this battle around the world, as part and parcel of the struggle against racism, imperialism and capitalism,” wrote Abu Hanish.

On Sunday, 30 April, actions and events continued in support of the Palestinian prisoners, with gatherings in Padua, Milan, Malmo, Melbourne, Beirut, Washington, DC and elsewhere. On 1 May, international May First events will include advocacy for Palestine and Palestine contingents in cities around the world, including in Athens, Liege, Brussels, Copenhagen, Charleroi, Malmo, New York, Lille, Arras, Paris, Lyon, Metz, Montpellier, Lausanne, Albertville, Beziers, Saint-Etienne, Berlin, Cologne, London, Los Angeles, Oakland, North Bergen and more. In Athens, multiple contingents, organizations, trade unions and political parties carried banners and signs saluting the Palestinian prisoners and their struggle for justice and dignity.

The World Federation of Trade Unions issued a strong statement of support for Palestinian prisoners, which was joined also by the International Trade Union Confederation. Palestinian trade unionists issued a call for increased boycott activism on May Day, including boycott of the Histadrut, the Israeli official labor body: “We also take this opportunity to call on trade unions yet to join the BDS movement to: implement boycotts of Israeli and international companies that are complicit with violations of Palestinian rights, divest trade union funds from companies and institutions complicit in Israel’s occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid, and apply pressure on governments to cut military and trade relations with Israel. We reiterate our call for a boycott of Histadrut, Israel’s general trade union, for its complicity with Israel’s violations of international law and its refusal to take a clear stand in support of comprehensive human rights for Palestinians.”

In Lebanon, Palestinian and Lebanese organizations are continuing activities to support the strikers; Palestinian refugees in Shatila camp organized support tents and the posting of banners and posters in support of the prisoners; in Mar Elias refugee camp, a candlelight event saluted the prisoners’ strike. In Beirut, Saida, Kharoub and elsewhere in Lebanon, protests and gatherings called for support for the prisoners; Samah Idriss of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon urged materializing solidarity with the prisoners through intensifying the boycott campaign.

The Parliamentary Association of the Mediterranean also declared support for the prisoners, reported Ma’an News. António Pedro Roque da Visitação Oliveira, the president of PAM and a member of the Parliament of Portugal, stated that the association would take action on the issue of striking prisoners and would be meeting urgently with the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the issue.