What should happen about the hunger strikers?

[noblegiraffe]

There are a group of people currently on remand in prison awaiting trial for criminal activities taken in support of the (currently) proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action. Some of them have gone on hunger strike and are suffering health impacts and some have been hospitalised.

Their demands appear to be:
to be released on bail
for Palestine Action to be de-proscribed as a terrorist group
for the UK to stop selling arms to Israel

I'm seeing various MPs writing earnest letters to David Lammy as Justice Secretary, saying that he must meet with them urgently to discuss their demands.

And then what?

It should go without saying that I really don't want people to die, and I'm sure that their families must be frantic, but what is actually expected to happen here? The proscription of Palestine Action is being appealed in the courts and I don't think people threatening to kill themselves should impact the democratic process.

Being released on bail? While I agree that it is shocking that they have been held in prison for 2 years while awaiting trial, because the justice system should work faster than that, they are active members of a currently proscribed terrorist organisation. At least one of the hunger strikers took part in the attack on Elbit where a female police officer had her back broken by one of the activists who attacked her with a sledgehammer while she lay on the ground. There's plenty of video footage of this, and I don't think the hunger strikers have condemned it. If they did get bail by threatening to kill themselves, surely everyone would then give it a go?

So what should happen?

That didn’t answer the question.

Do you mean the ’Seeds of Hope’ Ploughshares action which was carried out by 4 women who did £1.5 million worth of damage to a British Aerospace Hawk jet?
The plane was prevented from being exported to Indonesia where it may have been used to continue the genocide being committed in East Timor. The women were acquitted at Liverpool Crown Court in July 1996 having argued that their act was justified in law as they were preventing British complicity in genocide.

The Graun described it as a "rolling hunger strike" but didn't detail what that meant, and somewhere else (can't remember where) said they were 'taking electrolytes' which I presume would protect their health in some way.

But how one earth does 8:16 fasting qualify as a hunger strike? And it certainly wouldn't lead to hospitalisation, I've been doing it for years!

Surely it's got to be stricter than that? But again, what is meant by 'rolling', because the definite implication is that they are not always on hunger strike?

The term made me think of the 'rolling blackouts' in the 1970s, when the Oil Embargo (co-incidentally kicked off by Israel being attacked, that time by Egypt and Syria) meant there wasn't enough power, so it was rationed by rota; every area taking their turn to do without, essential services running on generators. So using the term 'rolling' absolutely suggests spreading the load by taking it in turns.

I really wish journalists did their jobs a bit better these days, and actually questioned those involved with what EXACTLY is meant by a rolling hunger strike, and then published the details.

Yes, along with the Fairford Five case.

The IRA did a ‘rolling’ hunger strike in that they started periodically, a different person every couple of weeks, but once they were on strike they had the decency to mean it &
not eat.

It’s a symbolic action to protest against taxpayers’ money being used to aid a genocide. It may not have prevented any killings. I personally disagree with any regime that targets children.

So you disagree with Palestine? Who killed Israeli children on Oct 7th?

Lawyers for eight remand prisoners who are on hunger strike while waiting to go on trial for alleged offences relating to Palestine Action are calling for an urgent meeting with ministers.

In a letter seen by the BBC, the lawyers tell Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy that there is a "real and increasingly likely potential" their clients will die in prison as part of their protest.

Two of the defendants had been refusing food for 37 days and five of the group have spent periods in hospital, according to the letter.

So it didn’t prevent any war crimes and the stated defence is irrelevant?

I disagree with any individual, group, or regime that kills children. I think the Israeli response has been disproportionate.

I think that will be resolved in the court case.

And the Palestinians?

Wtf??? You’re as brainwashed as them if you believe this ☝️

You think anything a lawyer says on behalf of a client is the truth?

It seems fairly straightforward that you can’t claim preventing war crimes as a defence if you weren’t actually preventing war crimes.

You said the hunger strikes and if you’re from the ‘East of the sea’ then what’s with the ‘we’ in no ‘serious suggestion we should give in to them’ (the Germans)? You’re being a bit resistant your own history there as that’s exactly what you did from word go.

I know. It's almost as if it were complicated, isn't it ?

No, it’s almost as if you weren’t aware how resistant the Irish are to their own history.

"Speaking from the east side of the sea"

Pardon my higgerance, but which sea?

I too would like everyone to stop talking in riddles

What was it ? The problem with the English is they know nothing of Irish history and the problem of the Irish is they never forget it ? Or similar.

The problem with the Irish is they know nothing of British history. Hence time and time again they try to use methods which will not work on an unshakable government who have always maintained an ironclad grip on their interests.

Fuck all. They have capacity, and Palestine Action need to stay banned. If they want to sacrifice their lives in support of a repulsive cause, that's a shame but they have the right.

The other 9 Irish hunger strikers who died along with Bobby Sands

Francis Hughes
Raymond NcCreesh
Patsy O'Hara
Joe McDonnell
Martin Hurson
Kevin Lynch
Kieran Doherty
Thomas McElwee
Michael Devine

Well you just demonstrated you forgot Irish history with your reference to not giving into the Germans to be fair. It doesn’t really stop with Nazi appeasement either, let’s not get into the entire national myth the ROI is based on. I think you should make sure you know what you’re talking about before throwing around unsolicited xenophobic accusations at other countries.