Pro-Palestine hunger strikers have starved for longer than IRA bomber Bobby Sands... do some of their hard-Left backers actually want them to become martyrs? | Retrui News | Retrui
Pro-Palestine hunger strikers have starved for longer than IRA bomber Bobby Sands... do some of their hard-Left backers actually want them to become martyrs?
SOURCE:Daily Mail
On the Falls Road in Belfast, the mural of hunger striker Bobby Sands has achieved a status that is close to a holy shrine.
On the Falls Road in Belfast, the mural of hunger striker Bobby Sands has achieved a status that is close to a holy shrine. It shows him smiling, with a phoenix rising to break the chains which surround him.
Sands, 27, a convicted IRA bomber who died from starvation in the Maze prison in 1981 after refusing food for 66 days, is regarded by Irish Republicans and the hard–Left in Britain as a martyr.
Fired by their intense hatred of Israel and Jewish 'Zionists', the Left are again intent on creating fresh martyrs for their cause. And as three activists, who call themselves Prisoners For Palestine (PFP), continue to starve themselves in prison this week, it appears they are close to achieving their morbid goal.
One of the strikers, Heba Muraisi, a 31–year–old lifeguard and florist, who lives in Barnet, north London, has now gone without food for 69 days, three days longer than Sands. She is said to be struggling to breathe, with muscle spasms in one arm, indicating possible neurological damage, by an unnamed spokesman for PFP – an offshoot of the banned Palestine Action group.
Those who claim to be 'supporting' the hunger strikers – the lawyers, the activists, the Corbynites, even some of their own parents – have not uttered a word in public to discourage them from refusing food until they die.
Muraisi, who is originally from Yemen and has family in Rafah, Gaza, is accused of being connected to an alleged break–in at the UK site of the Israeli military tech company, Elbit Systems, in Bristol in August 2024.
She denies the charges.
As Muraisi began her hunger strike, she issued a statement in which she described Sir Keir Starmer as 'pathetic' and vowed to 'fight and to resist' from behind 'steel walls and sensors'.
Heba Muraisi, who is originally from Yemen and has family in Rafah, Gaza, is accused of being connected to an alleged break–in at the UK site of the Israelimilitary tech company, Elbit Systems, in Bristol in August 2024
A protester holds a picture of Teuta Hoxha during a demonstration outside the Department of Health in solidarity with pro-Palestine activists. When Hoxha ended her hunger strike this week, another of the strikers, Heba Muraisi, a 31–year–old lifeguard and florist, who lives in Barnet, north London, has now gone without food for 69 days
Bobby Sands, 27, a convicted IRA bomber who died from starvation in the Maze prison in 1981 after refusing food for 66 days
Muraisi said she was acting for the people of Gaza and for her family, 'who,' she added, 'I don't even know if they've made it out of Rafah'.
She signed off with the controversial phrase: 'Long live the intifada' – the Arabic word for uprising.
Police have started to arrest protesters who shout slogans involving calls for intifada for 'racially aggravated public order offences'.
Muraisi's mother, Dunya, is claimed to be too ill to visit her in prison but has written a public letter of encouragement – notable for lacking any plea to her daughter to eat. 'We are here behind you, supporting you and loving you without limits,' she wrote. 'No matter how long the night of waiting lasts, the sun of freedom will surely rise.'
When Muraisi began her strike, the 31–year–old said she wanted to 'make it abundantly clear that this is not about dying'.
But on Tuesday, she admitted she was 'terrified' of its likely conclusion. 'My body shakes, I get dizzy to the point of nausea and now breathing is getting hard,' she told the Metro newspaper. 'I am deteriorating in this cell, I am dying.'
The hunger strikers have reportedly only been drinking water and a homemade mix of electrolyte solutions to stabilise their blood pressure.
Muraisi is said to be unable to sit down because of extreme weight loss. She has gone from weighing 9st 2lb in November to about 7st 11lb on January 5.
Kamran Ahmed one of the Palestine Action supporters on hunger strike
Qesser Zuhrah one of the Palestine Action supporters on hunger strike
Muhammed Khalid one of the Palestine Action supporters on hunger strike
Supporters of the Palestine Action hunger strikers protest in Parliament square. Police have started to arrest protesters who shout slogans involving calls for intifada for 'racially aggravated public order offences'
Anthony Daniels, a former prison doctor and psychiatrist, says: 'We can go up to 50/70 days without food but, by then, [the body] has used all its spare energy reserves and is in effect feeding on itself. The heart slows, kidneys give out and when they [the hunger strikers] have lost 50 per cent of their weight, damage has become permanent and death usually occurs.'
At a news conference in London before Christmas, physician Dr James Smith said the hunger strikers were at 'a critical stage'. Mr Daniels explains: 'If, at a late moment, the hunger strike is abandoned, it may be too late and permanent brain damage may have occurred.' He adds: 'For a person to refuse treatment, they must have the mental capacity to do so. If they do not have that capacity, the doctor must act in the patient's best interests.
'What are the best interests of a patient on hunger strike who has expressed a wish to continue it, but has lost the mental capacity to refuse treatment?'
The other two strikers are Kamran Ahmed, 28, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who has diabetes and is refusing food only every other day. A fourth prisoner, 29–year–old Teuta Hoxha ended her strike this week. Ahmed, a mechanic from east London, is being held at HMP Pentonville in north London. Last week, he was hospitalised for the fifth time. By Christmas, his weight had dropped from 11st, 11lb to 9st 6lb.
He told The Sunday Times last month he was 'literally a shell' of himself. 'My head just feels suddenly hot and it feels like I'm going to drop. There have been times when I felt like I'm getting tasered – my body's vibrating or shaking. I'll basically lose control of my feelings. I've been scared since the seventh day, when my blood sugar dropped.
'The nurse said, 'I'm scared you're not going to wake up. Please eat something'. But I'm looking at the bigger picture of perhaps we can relieve oppression abroad and relieve the situation for my co–defendants.' The strikers' demands include their immediate release on bail and for negotiations with Justice Secretary David Lammy.
But they are also calling for the Government to shut down Elbit Systems' sites in Britain and for the ban on Palestine Action, which is classed as a terrorist organisation, to be lifted.
Asked about the hunger strike at PMQs by MP Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's former leader, Sir Keir replied that the Government was following 'rules and procedures'.
Those rules and procedures are unbending. Every Prime Minister knows – as then–premier Margaret Thatcher did in 1981 – that hunger strikes are a form of emotional blackmail and cannot be allowed to succeed.
According to the prisons minister Lord Timpson, about 200 hunger strikes a year are staged in British jails. If the Government grants legitimacy to any of them – by recognising their demands – it would quickly lose control.
Supporters of Bobby Sands outside the Maze prison where Sands was carrying out his hunger strike
Activists leave the outside of the Ministry of Justice covered in red paint on December 12, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. Protesters were demonstrating against the government's refusal to engage with pro-Palestinian hunger strikers
The PFP strikers might not understand this. But their political backers and allies abroad will certainly know that the real value of the protest does not lie in what concessions it can wring from the authorities. This is about using human lives as leverage.
Kevin Blowe, from campaign group the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol), says that those backing the strike want to find out if Labour can be pressured into a climbdown.
'It becomes a game of chicken, who blinks first and how far the Government is prepared to do nothing,' he told an Australian journalist. 'I don't know if anybody really knows what this Government is capable of.'
Out of the eight prisoners initially involved in the hunger strike, five have now resumed eating. Jon Cink and Umer Khalid ended their strike after 41 days. Qesser Zuhrah and Amy Gardiner–Gibson went 52 days without food. While Hoxha stopped after 58 days, declaring that some of her demands had been met, such as receiving letters and a book.
Most of the strikers face charges including aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage following the alleged break–in at Elbit's Bristol site.
At a hearing last month, Woolwich Crown Court was told that six protesters had wielded sledgehammers and sprayed fire extinguishers at security guards.
One activist allegedly struck a female police officer, causing a fractured spine.
Zuhrah is being held at Bronzefield prison in Surrey. Muraisi was also there but has been moved to New Hall jail in Yorkshire.
Jail authorities will provide the protesters with hospital treatment, while prison officers, who must find it extremely distressing to see inmates starving to death, urge them to eat.
But that is all they can do.
The World Medical Association ruled 50 years ago that force–feeding hunger strikers was unethical and potentially a form of torture. They cannot be made to eat – and it seems their so–called supporters want to see them continue to refuse food.
The hard–Left want martyrs. And tragically, it appears they may get them.