JOHANNESBURG

South African activists on Tuesday protested outside the British Council offices in Johannesburg, highlighting the plight of pro-Palestine hunger strikers in UK jails, calling on the British government to immediately release them.

Some protesters carried placards reading “Solidarity with the hunger strikers,” “Support Palestine Action,” “Trying to stop genocide is not a crime,” among others.

The protesters handed over their list of demands to a representative of the British Council and asked them to forward it to the UK ambassador.

Firoza Mayet of the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) told Anadolu, they have also emailed their demands to the ambassador, seeking the release of the hunger strikers who are reportedly in critical health condition.

On Monday, several civil society groups in South Africa expressed their solidarity with the hunger strikers and called on the British government to grant them immediate bail and uphold their right to fair, transparent and timely trials.

In a joint statement shared with Anadolu, the group said: “Some of the hunger strikers have now passed the 50-day mark without food and may die if urgent action is not taken.”

The hunger striking prisoners are accused of breaking into the UK subsidiary of the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire.

Mayet told Anadolu that Elbit Systems is enabling genocide by sending arms to Israel. “These young activists were opposing this Elbit System sending weapons to Israel,” she said.

The joint statement from more than 20 organizations said: “We urge Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to reflect on the historical consequences of a Thatcherite response to the hunger strike that led to the deaths of Bobby Sands and nine other Irish Republican political prisoners in 1981.”

End genocide

Activists on Tuesday reiterated calls for the global community to ensure the end of the genocide in Gaza and atrocities being committed in occupied Palestinian territories.

“This genocide needs to end. The so-called ceasefire is totally disregarded every day and even today (Tuesday) people have been killed in Gaza, in the West Bank. The situation is getting worse with people imprisoned unilaterally, people are killed unilaterally,’’ Mayet told Anadolu.

She said people across the world should continue to rally support for Palestinians as more of their land is being annexed in the West Bank, pushing them away and stopping them from farming.

The civil society groups said on Monday that five of the hunger strikers in British jails are under the age of 31, with the youngest being 20 years old, and their health condition is critical.

The hunger strikers include Qesser Zuhrah, Teuta Hoxha, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed and Amu Gib.

The group said Gib and Ahmed have been hospitalized, Zuhrah is starting to lose her vision, Muraisi is losing her memory and Hoxha has dangerously low blood sugar levels and her skin is turning grey.

“Their colleague Lewie Chiaramello is on a partial hunger strike due to diabetes, while Jon Cink and Umer Khalid – who has muscular dystrophy – recently stopped their hunger strike after being hospitalized.”

The hunger strikers are demanding an end to all prison censorship of their communication, including the withholding of letters, phone calls and books.

They want immediate bail for all members of the Palestine Action group currently being held in UK prisons, the right to a fair and timely trial for all Palestine Action prisoners and the de-proscription of Palestine Action and removal of its “terror” classification.

They are also calling for the shutdown of all Elbit Systems sites and subsidiaries operating in the UK.