The United Kingdom’s authoritarian government, through its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and criminalisation of activism against it, has completely upended basic moral values. It now seems quite prepared to see such young activists, currently on hunger strike in its prisons, die.
It is worth recalling how things came to this critical juncture.
Faced with a situation where successive UK governments would not take any meaningful action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which they are obligated to do under article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and where mass demonstrations were ignored and denigrated, a number of activists took direct action that resulted in their arrest, refusal of bail, and imprisonment on remand.
The first of these actions was in August 2024 at the facility of UK-based Israeli arms company, Elbit Systems, in Filton, Bristol. Once inside the facility, 6 activists disabled equipment, including several quadcopter drones of the type deployed by Israel in Gaza where they have killed Palestinian civilians, including children. The 6 activists were arrested at the facility.
Four other arrests followed in different parts of the country. Each of the 10 were held for a week without charge under the Terrorism act. They were subsequently charged with offences unrelated to terrorism and have been held in prison on remand since then. In November 2024 and July 2025, further arrests resulted in 14 more people charged with the same action and remanded to prison. They are now known as the Filton 24, and the majority of them have been held without trial for over a year.
This case has resulted in concerns by the legal and human rights community about warning signs of erosion of the rule of law and democracy in the United Kingdom. The trial of the six activists arrested at the Filton facility began in November 2025, and reports already show that the concerns about a fair trial for the Filton 24 are well founded.
The second action that culminated in the arrest of 5 activists – known as the Brize Norton 5 – occurred in June 2025 at the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. Activists sprayed red paint into the turbines of 2 Voyager aircraft and reportedly used crowbars to cause further damage. The reason for targeting this base was because “Brize Norton has served as a transport and re-fuelling hub for flights to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from where daily flights have been dispatched to spy over Gaza”. The role of RAF Akrotiri, particularly in regard to the UK’s spy flights across the Gaza Strip for Israel, although largely ignored by mainstream media, has been extensively covered by Declassified UK.
The Brize Norton action was cited as a reason for the UK government proscribing the direct action group, Palestine Action, that all these activists were members of – although there is evidence to show that proscription had been planned for some time previously. This is the first time the UK Parliament has ever proscribed a direct action protest group. And it was, to say the least, ironic that on the same day that MPs voted for the proscription order put forward by then UK Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, she and many other women MPs, in commemorating the anniversary of the vote for women in the UK, wore sashes in the colours of another direct action group, the Suffragettes, as a tribute to their role in bringing this about. The Suffragettes direct action campaign included, amongst other things, a nationwide bombing and arson campaign, telegraph cable cutting, artwork destruction, smashing windows and postbox burnings.
Protests against the proscription of Palestine Action, as of 29 November 2025, have resulted in at least 2,489 people being arrested. Many were quietly holding signs reading “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” – as was the case for Reverend Sue Parfitt, an 83 year old retired priest, one of 29 people arrested on 5 July, 2025, the day the ban came into force. More recently, on 23 December 2025, 22 year old Greta Thunberg was arrested under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding a similar placard in support of the activists in prison saying “I support Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide”.
Despite the Filton 24 and Brize Norton 5 being arrested before Palestine Action was proscribed, their treatment in prison deteriorated when this occurred. A press release issued by Prisoners4Palestine, cited this along with the fact that some of these prisoners had spent over a year in custody, without trial, leading to a feeling that there was no option but to go on hunger-strike to fight for fairer treatment. Symbolically the date set for the commencement of the hunger strike was 2nd November 2025, Balfour Day, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
The hunger strikers have five demands: a right to a fair trial, immediate bail while awaiting trial, ending prison censorship, deproscription of Palestine Action, and asking the government to cuts ties with arms manufacturers complicit in the genocide in Palestine.
At the time of writing, there are four activists that are still continuing their hunger strike: Heba Muraisi (64th day), Teuta Hoxha (58th day), Kamran Ahmed (57th day) and Lewie Chiaramello (43rd day). There is a real and urgent concern that their lives are in danger.
Over 800 doctors, legal experts and family members have urged the Deputy Prime Minster and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, to intervene to save the hunger strikers. United Nations experts have expressed grave concern for the lives and fundamental rights of pro-Palestinian activist hunger strikers imprisoned in the United Kingdom. Yet, the UK government declines to act and David Lammy continues to refuse to meet the hunger strikers’ lawyers. Their indifference to whether these young activists die or not is staggering and brings into sharp relief their complete lack of humanity.
Please, as a matter of urgency, sign and share this Avaaz petition now to join the global call to save their lives.
For more information on the Filton 24 and Brize Norton 5 and actions that can be taken to support them, please visit the following websites:
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