Protest in Dublin as Palestine Action hunger striker in UK prison passes 70 days

PALESTINE ACTION HUNGER striker Hiba Muraisi is in critical condition after refusing food for 73 days.

The 31-year-old, held in New Hall Prison in northern England, has now bypassed then MP Bobby Sands who died after 66 days on republican hunger strike in 1981.

In Ireland, protests are being held across the country today in solidarity with the Palestine Action protests, organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).

The ISPC said that the protest also demands that “the Irish government end all complicity in genocide and call on the British government to take action.”

The Dublin contingent will protest at the Dáil on Kildare Street at 5.30pm.

Londoner Hiba Muraisi was arrested on 19 November 2024 over her alleged involvement in a break-in in August of the same year at the UK subsidiary of the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol.

She is being held on remand and has not been tried or convicted of any crime. Her trial will likely not happen before June this year. This is over a year beyond the UK’s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.

Four other hunger strikers are in similar circumstances. 

Their hunger strike demands include bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action, (designated a terrorist organisation), and rights in prison, such as access to mail, calls and books.

They are also calling for Elbit systems to be expelled from the UK.

Kamran Ahmed, 28, who is on day 66, has seen his heart rate has drop to 40 beats a minute, and is at risk of sudden cardiac arrest, according to his sister.

Lewie Chiaramello, 22, who has type 1 diabetes, is fasting every other day for 46 days.

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Last Saturday, another 22 year-old Umar Khalid, one of five prisoners who previously paused participation in the hunger strike, restarted.

Doctors and Irish men who were removed from the 1981 hunger strike have warned that all those involved are facing life-long health issues even if the protest ends now.

The Palestine Action hunger strike has sparked outrage in Ireland and the UK as many people note the parallels to the republican hunger strike of 1981 in which 10 young men died protesting Margaret Thatcher’s policies.

The death of the Irish hunger strikers, who died after refusing food for varying periods before death, the longest at 73 days (Kieran Doherty TD) and shortest at 46 days (Martin Hurson) led to recruitment for the IRA and further violence in Northern Ireland.

The jailed Palestine Action protestors are part of a wider group known as the Filton 24.

In August 2024, six people drove a repurposed prison van into Elbit Systems manufacturing hub in Filton, Bristol

Elbit Systems, is a large, privately owned, Israeli-based arms company. 

The action allegedly cost over £1 million in damage.

Palestine Action was not a proscribed organisation at the time of this alleged incident.

Six were arrested at the scene, four more were arrested later and all were remanded in prison. 

In November 2024 and July 2025, 14 more people were charged with the same action and remanded to prison. They are now referred to as “the Filton 24.”

All were refused bail.

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