South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) is outraged by Britain’s detention and torture of our comrades from Palestine Action who are on hunger strike, many of whom will – God forbid – die unless immediately released.
We call on the British Government, the British High Commission in South Africa and the British Council to take immediate measures to prevent further harm to the detained activists. We also call on the South African government to intervene urgently in the matter.
We know the history of anti-apartheid hunger strikes in South Africa, and cannot sit idly by as humans are effectively sentenced to death for opposing a genocide in which their country is complicit.
We remind the UK government that it will be culpable for the murder of anti-genocide activists by organised abandonment if it does not take urgent action.
The hunger strikers are alleged to have broken into Israeli defence firm Elbit System’s factory in Bristol and a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Oxfordshire to stop the supply of weapons from Britain to Israel. The weapons produced in this facility are used to commit genocide in Gaza, to murder innocent civillians, including children both there, and in the West Bank. Such arms trade fuels the genocide, and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has called for the United Kingdom to be held to account for this crime.
The hunger strikers are being held without bail on charges brought under the United Kingdom’s security legislation. This legislation has brought about the banning of Palestine Action as a “terrorist organisation”. It is a grotesque irony that the law should be used to criminalise opposition to genocide rather than genocide itself.
Those arrested have been detained pending trial and have been denied bail. Their trial has been set for July 2026, by which time some detainees will have been held in prison for more than 20 months. We support their demands which include:
- Bail for all the accused
- An end to all censorship of prisoners
- The right to a fair and urgent trial, including the release of all relevant documents in their cases
- The de-proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group and the immediate dropping of terror-related charges against activists linked to the organisation
- The closure of all Elbit Systems sites in the UK and the scrapping of government contracts with the company
We join them in drawing attention to the genocide and the settler colonial occupation of Palestine and call for an end to both.
We see the arrests of Palestine Action activists as part of the violent policy of mass incarceration adopted by Israel and its allies. Between October 2023 and November 2025, an average of 10,000–11,000 Palestinian political prisoners and hostages were held in custody by the Israeli authorities at any given time. Even after the release in October 2025 of around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and hostages following the ceasefire agreement, over 9,000 remained in custody, with many new abductions and detentions taking place in the West Bank. The vast majority are civilians, including many children. We call for the release of all political prisoners in Palestine as well as in countries such as the United Kingdom.
We call on all people of conscience to demand the release of the incarcerated hunger strikers and all political prisoners. For comrades on social media, tag at the UK High Commission’s Facebook page or use @ukinsouthafrica on X or Instagram page demanding they release the incarcerated hunger strikers.