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London, United Kingdom \u2013<\/strong> In the final days of their months-long hunger strike, three young pro-Palestine activists on remand \u2013 convicted of no crime \u2013 were confronted with their mortality in the confines of their prison cells.<\/p>\n Heba Muraisi, 31, who refused food for 73 days, was suffering with a level of pain so severe that sitting felt unbearable. At 49kg (108lb), her body wasting away, there were fears her organs were shutting down. Her memory declined and she had muscle spasms, a sign of possible neurological damage.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n But until they announced the end of their hunger strikes on Wednesday amid their rapidly collapsing health, Muraisi and prisoners Kamran Ahmed, 28, and Lewie Chiaramello, 23, were determined to continue.<\/p>\n A Londoner who worked as a florist and lifeguard, Muraisi told Al Jazeera this week that she had resigned herself to the idea of death but wanted to keep refusing food in protest because she was \u201cfinally being heard\u201d.<\/p>\n Ahmed, in a statement sent to Al Jazeera, has said ending the hunger strike after 65 days felt \u201cbittersweet\u201d.<\/p>\n Chiaramello had fasted every other day, as he is a Type 1 diabetic, for 46 days.<\/p>\n In total, eight individuals have participated in the protest since early November. Currently, just one remand prisoner, Umer Khalid, continues to refuse food.<\/p>\n \u201cI was willing to go the distance,\u201d said Ahmed, who is also from London and had worked as a mechanic. \u201cBut others were not willing to see me walk a mile further.\u201d<\/p>\n Described by loved ones as having become paper-thin, Ahmed has lost 25 percent of his body weight. His heart muscle has shrunk, he suffers from chest pains and has lost hearing in one ear. His speech was slurring, and walking took so much energy it made him breathless.<\/p>\n On Monday, when they last spoke by phone, his sister Shahmina Alam, a pharmacist, urged him to consider ending the strike.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just knew that it\u2019s coming to a point where it\u2019s really dangerous and actually, the probability of death was very high,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Alam and physicians consulting the group are concerned that the hunger strikers may have already suffered irreversible health damage, as long-term symptoms related to starvation can take years to show. There are also fears around refeeding, which can be fatal if mismanaged.<\/p>\n Ahmed was hospitalised again this week, the seventh time since the protest began.<\/p>\n The collective held at various prisons includes Qesser Zuhrah; Amu Gib; Muraisi; Teuta Hoxha; Ahmed; Chiaramello; Jon Cink and Khalid, who has muscular dystrophy and has been on hunger strike for seven days.<\/p>\n All will have spent more than a year in prison before their trials are expected to take place later this year, far beyond the standard six-month pre-trial detention limit.<\/p>\n Some of the group, known as part of the \u201cFilton 24\u201d, are alleged to have participated in a break-in at the UK subsidiary of Israel\u2019s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, in Bristol. Others are accused of involvement in a break-in at a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Oxfordshire. They deny the charges against them, such as burglary and criminal damage.<\/p>\n Palestine Action, the group they are allegedly linked to, claimed responsibility for both incidents.<\/p>\n Six of those charged in the Bristol action are currently on trial.<\/p>\n The collective had five key protest demands, including immediate bail, the guarantee of a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action.<\/p>\n They also called for all 16 of Elbit\u2019s sites in the UK to be closed and demanded an end to what they call censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books.<\/p>\n Throughout the protest, the government said the group would face a fair trial, that it had no power over the issue of bail, as this is a matter for the judiciary, and that prison welfare procedures were being followed. It has not commented on the end of the latest hunger strikes.<\/p>\n Elbit Systems, a target of Palestine Action\u2019s campaign, describes its drones, which have been used extensively in Gaza to deadly effect, as \u201cthe backbone\u201d of Israel\u2019s drone fleet.<\/p>\n Palestine Action had been calling to \u201cshut Elbit down\u201d before it was outlawed as a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d in July, putting it on par with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. The group, which said it backed direct action without violence and accused the UK of complicity in Israel\u2019s atrocities, is fighting the ban in courts.<\/p>\n In the later stages of the hunger strike, the group added a further demand \u2013 that Muraisi be returned to Bronzefield prison near her home, having been moved to a jail in northern England.<\/p>\n That will now happen, said Prisoners for Palestine, an activist-led group that supports the collective\u2019s families, hailing the transfer as a triumph.<\/p>\n Prisoners for Palestine has claimed several \u201cvictories\u201d \u2013 primarily the UK government\u2019s recent decision, reported by The Times newspaper, against awarding Elbit Systems UK a 2-billion-pound ($2.68bn) army training contract. However, the contract is instead reportedly going to Raytheon UK, the subsidiary of the US defence firm, which also has several deals with the Israeli military. Back in October 2023, Raytheon\u2019s CEO said the company would \u201cbenefit\u201d as the \u201cwar in Gaza or in Israel \u2026 will eventually lead to additional orders\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously we will never know \u2013 and I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll ever admit \u2013 how much of an influence the hunger strike had on [the contract decision against Elbit],\u201d Alam, Ahmed\u2019s sister, said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some wins,\u201d she added, such as raising awareness about Elbit\u2019s role in Israel\u2019s genocide and the overuse of pre-trial detention in the UK.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s supporters have also claimed victory.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been some concessions by government,\u201d said John McDonnell, a Labour MP, as he paid tribute to the hunger strikers\u2019 \u201cdedication\u201d.<\/p>\n Prisoners for Palestine said it considers as another success the offer of a meeting between Hoxha and the head of JEXU (Joint Extremism Unit) at her prison. Hoxha had claimed she was being monitored by the JEXU task force and that it had ordered prison officers to strip her of a library job in jail.<\/p>\n The group also saw as a win its meeting with prison healthcare leaders \u201cat the behest of the Ministry of Justice\u201d, and the \u201cbulk\u201d release of mail it alleged had been \u201cwithheld\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBooks on topics of Gaza and feminism have also been given [to the prisoners] after months of waiting,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n The protest is said to have been the largest coordinated hunger strike in UK history since 1981, when Irish Republican inmates were led by Bobby Sands. Sands died on the 66th day of his protest, becoming a symbol of the Irish Republican cause. Nine others also died of starvation.<\/p>\n \u201cOur prisoners\u2019 hunger strike will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance; an embarrassment for the British state,\u201d said Prisoners for Palestine, which offers \u201cdirect action training\u201d on its website.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile these prisoners end their hunger strike, the resistance has just begun,\u201d said the group, adding that 500 people have recently expressed interest in taking \u201cdirect action against the genocidal military-industrial complex\u201d.<\/p>\n It added that in pursuit of a fair trial, the hunger strikers had demanded the disclosure of export licences for the last five years from Elbit Systems. \u201cAfter repeated requests, this information was disclosed to an independent researcher by the Department of Trade during the hunger strike,\u201d it said, hailing another \u201cvictory\u201d.<\/p>\n Alam said she imagines Ahmed will have had a few cups of tea since the hunger strike ended. He requested soya milk, she said, as it is easier on the stomach.<\/p>\n The government does not \u201cget to decide whether these guys live or don\u2019t live\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s their decision, and that\u2019s what they did.<\/p>\n \u201cThey took back control.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n London, United Kingdom \u2013 In the final days of their months-long hunger strike, three young pro-Palestine activists on remand \u2013 convicted of no crime \u2013 were confronted with their mortality in the confines of their prison cells. Heba Muraisi, 31, who refused food for 73 days, was suffering with a level of pain so severe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018I was willing to go the distance\u2019<\/h2>\n
Were the hunger strikers\u2019 demands met?<\/h2>\n
\u2018There has been some concessions by government\u2019: MP<\/h2>\n
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