Palestine Hunger Striker ‘Close To Death’ After 57 Days Without Food
One of the prisoners on hunger strike for Palestine is ‘losing the ability to speak’ and is in ‘critical danger’ after 57 days without food, with her health rapidly deteriorating while in detention.
Heba Muraisi is among a group of eight prisoners detained on remand for their roles in ‘direct action’ protests for Palestine Action, who all went on hunger strike at the start of November.
Three of the prisoners are still continuing the hunger strike, with Heba having carried on the longest. Four of them simply couldn’t carry on anymore, while another, who has Type 1 Diabetes, is continuing but only on alternate days.
In a phone call released by Prisoners for Palestine, recorded on Day 53 of her strike, Heba explained how going without food for so long has taken a heavy physical toll on her.
She said: ‘Even though I’m immensely proud of my body’s resilience and capability, I can feel myself get weaker as each day passes.’
‘When I lay down at night now I can’t lay on my side because it hurts my face.
‘Sometimes I struggle to construct sentences, sometimes I struggle to maintain conversation.’
She added that she has a ‘constant body ache’ and bruising on her arms, hands, and fingers from blood tests, dizziness, headaches and nausea.
Heba was arrested in November 2024 following her alleged role in the raid on Elbit Systems in Bristol, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, which caused over £1 million in damage.
By the time her trial date rolls around in June next year, she will have spent close to two years in prison without conviction. Surely she’ll have to eat something before then, or there’s no way she’ll survive?
In an earlier statement released through Prisoners for Palestine, Heba said: ‘I want to make it abundantly clear that this is not about dying, because unlike the enemy I love life, and my love for life, for people, is the reason why I have been incarcerated for 349 days now.’
The other prisoners still on hunger strike are Teuta Hoxha (Day 51), Kamran Ahmed (Day 50) and Lewie Chiaramello (every other day due to Type 1 Diabetes – currently on Day 36).
The protesters’ demands include ‘end all censorship’ of communication and correspondence in jail, immediate bail, ‘right to a fair’ trial, de-proscribing Palestine Action as a banned terrorist organisation, and shutting Elbit down.
Unfortunately, I don’t think any of that is going to happen and multiple hunger strikes, even those that could potentially end in tragedy, isn’t going to change that.
Surely Heba and co realise that neither their hunger strikes or deaths will achieve any of their demands, but it looks like they’re persisting anyway. Is there a compromise to be made here, somewhere?
For the man who lost over a stone after consuming nothing but beer for lent, click HERE. Noted.
