'A Shared Struggle': A tale of Palestinian and Irish hunger strikers

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Activists of different nationalities have published a book on the stories of Palestinian and Irish prisoners who went on a hunger strike in their struggle against the Israeli occupation and British colonialism respectively.

The book, "A Shared Struggle: Stories of Palestinian & Irish Hunger Strikers", was recently published by the Irish publishing house An Fhuiseog.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Youssef Al-Jamal, one of the contributors, said the book was authored by a group of Palestinian, Irish, Malaysian and British activists.

Al-Jamal said the book narrates 31 stories of hunger-striking prisoners, with 24 stories about Palestinian detainees and the remaining seven about Irish prisoners.

The book also contains a collection of poems by Palestinian prisoner Khalil Abu Aram and Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands.

“I issued the series on Palestinian prisoners with Norma Hashem to shed the light on the shared struggle of the Palestinians and Irish against settler colonialism," Al-Jamal said.

He outlined several reasons for linking the Palestinian and Irish struggles.

“The first reason is that settler colonialism in Palestine has many similarities with that of Ireland as the British Protestant settlers tend to support Israel,” Al-Jamal explained.

He also pointed to Israel’s administrative detention policy as “basically a British law used in Northern Ireland and which is currently used by Israel against Palestinian prisoners.”

He continued, "Britain did in Northern Ireland what Israel is doing now in Palestine by planting settlers to change the demographic structure."

“Moreover,” he said, “Britain arrested and abused the Irish and subjected them to severe torture and violence, similar to what Israel is doing against Palestinian prisoners.”

Al-Jamal said the Irish show solidarity with the Palestinian cause through boycotting Israeli goods, the flying of Palestinian flags by municipalities and local councils in Ireland, and the existence of long mutually supportive historical relations between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Stories from the book

The book sheds the light on a group of prisoners who went on a hunger strike to reject the arbitrary measures and violations they were subjected to inside prisons, whether by Israelis in the case of Palestinians, or by the British in the case of Irish.

One story shows the struggle of Palestinian prisoner Rawda Habib, who was arrested by the Israeli army in 2007 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Habib decided to go on a hunger strike after Israeli authorities refused her request to be transferred to the female prison despite the end of her investigation.

Habib, who gave birth to her child in an Israeli prison, was later released as part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The book also narrates the suffering of Irish prisoner Bobby Sands known for his infamous saying “Our Revenge Will Be the Laughter of Our Children.” Sands lost his life while on a hunger strike for 66 days.

There are around 4,850 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 41 women, 225 children, and 540 administrative detainees, according to observers.

On Monday, six Palestinian inmates tunneled out of the high-security Gilboa prison in northern Israel. While it was hailed by Palestinian factions as a “big victory,” the prison break was viewed in Israel as unacceptable security and intelligence failure.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara