News / protest
Rally held in Bristol to support hunger strikers
Photographs of the eight prisoners currently on a hunger strike were held aloft in Bristol at a rally organised to draw attention to their plight.
One speaker at the event next to the Cascade Steps said there has been a “complete media blackout” of the hunger strikers, some of who are among the ‘Filton 24′ who were imprisoned after allegedly breaking into Elbit Systems in north Bristol.
Shutting the Israeli-owned arms firm down is among the hunger strikers’ demands, which also include them being released on bail until their trials and the deproscription of Palestine Action, membership of which has been illegal since July.
Dozens of people attended the rally in solidarity with the hunger strikers – photo: Rob Browne
“This is a situation which a just world would never permit to arise,” said Owen from Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone during the rally on Saturday afternoon.
“It is within such sorrow though that I see so much solidarity, love and resolve before me.
“We are gathered here to send our solidarity to the courageous political prisoners currently on hunger strike in British prisons.
“Now this is called a hunger strike but let’s be honest about what this is: this is starvation and torture of political prisoners by the imperialist British state.”
Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone is “a grassroots campaign of resistance in solidarity with Palestinians and against the oppressive state of Israel and its Western backers” – photo: Rob Browne
Main photo: Rob Browne
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