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political prisoners
Facing Imminent Death, Final Palestine Action Prisoner Ends Hunger Strike in UK
"If David Lammy wishes to see me dead, if Keir Starmer wishes to see me dead, they can come and do it themselves," said 22-year-old activist Umer Khalid.
Jan 28, 2026
After 17 days without food and three without water, the 22-year-old British pro-Palestine activist Umer Khalid ended his hunger strike after being hospitalized on Monday.
Khalid is the last of the eight young activists with the group Palestine Action to remain on hunger strike to protest their imprisonment without trial and the criminalization of pro-Palestine speech in the UK.
“At the hospital… I was given a choice between treatment and likely death within the next 24 hours due to kidney failure, acute liver failure, and potential cardiac arrest,” said Khalid, in a statement shared by the Prisoners for Palestine group, which is supporting the strikers. He said that he decided to end his hunger strike because, “I am too strong, too loud, too powerful… and there is so much we can do to effect change.”
The activists are being held in prison on remand, meaning they were denied bail and have not yet been given a trial for vandalizing military equipment used to support Israel's genocidal war in Gaza.
Earlier this month, several of the strikers, some of whom had refused food since November, ended their strike after the UK rejected a $2.7 billion contract for a subsidiary of Israel’s largest weapons maker, Elbit Systems.
Four of them were arrested after allegedly breaking into an Elbit facility and destroying equipment. Khalid is among four others accused of trespassing at a British Royal Air Force base and vandalizing airplanes.
Khalid, who suffers from Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy and suffered multiple organ failure during the strike, ended his protest after Amy Frost, the governor of the Wormwood Scrubs prison where he is being held, agreed to meet with him to discuss the conditions of his confinement. After the meeting, he received mail and clothes that the prison had withheld from him, and restrictions on outside visitors that had been in place since July were lifted.
A spokesperson for Prisoners for Palestine said Khalid "absolutely must have compassionate bail in order to heal, all the hunger strikers should."
In addition to protesting the restrictive conditions of their confinement, the strikers were seeking to draw attention to the criminalization of Palestine Action. The UK government, currently led by Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer, added the group to a list of banned "terrorist" organizations in July, meaning that even peaceful support for the group or identification as a member can result in imprisonment.
Since the ban went into effect, more than 2,700 people have been arrested across the UK over support for or involvement with Palestine Action, in many cases for actions like holding a sign or chanting a slogan in support of the group.
The British government has been repeatedly pressed to intervene on behalf of the strikers, who have alleged mistreatment and neglect while in confinement.
Khalid previously went on a 12-day hunger strike, which the Canary reported "made Khalid seriously unwell and unable to walk." According to the outlet, "the prison mismanaged his refeeding by giving him protein shakes and biscuits, dangerously unsuitable."
Other strikers have said recovery from weeks or months without food has been exceedingly difficult. Shahmina Alam, a healthcare worker and the sister of Kamran Ahmed, who refused food for 67 days, said the strike showed that "the prison healthcare system is not fit for purpose" and that "there are systemic failures to provide care which is dignified, timely, or even lifesaving."
"These prisoners are not treated as patients or even humans," she continued. "They are dehumanised, handcuffed in their sleep and in the shower, and are given no privacy, confidentiality, or respect."
Despite calls from medical experts and members of Parliament, David Lammy, the secretary of state for justice, has refused calls to meet with the strikers to discuss their demands, which have included immediate bail, an end to the censorship of their communications, and an end to the ban on Palestine Action.
Khalid said he made his decision to end the strike in part because members of the government "have shown without a doubt that they have no concern for our lives and they do not care if we die in these cells."
He said, "If David Lammy wishes to see me dead, if Keir Starmer wishes to see me dead, they can come and do it themselves."
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'I Am a Political Prisoner': Mahmoud Khalil Shares Letter From ICE Detention
"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night."
Mar 18, 2025
"My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner."
That's the beginning of a letter from a former organizer of pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University who is fighting the Trump administration's effort to deport him. The letter, which he dictated from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana where he is now detained, was posted on social media Tuesday by groups representing him in court.
Khalil finished his graduate studies at Columbia in December. He is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent and was living in the United States with a green card when he was arrested by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers in New York City earlier this month. His family—including his wife Noor, who is a U.S. citizen and expecting their first child—shared a video of the arrest on Friday.
"DHS would not tell me anything for hours—I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation," Khalil said Tuesday. "At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request."
"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night," he continued. "With January's cease-fire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom."
Khalil also called out administrative leaders at Columbia for not only enabling his arrest but also "the expulsion or suspension of at least 22 Columbia students—some stripped of their B.A. degrees just weeks before graduation—and the expulsion" of Grant Miner, president of United Auto Workers Local 2710, which represents thousands of student workers, on the eve of contract negotiations.
"If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation," Khalil said. "Students have long been at the forefront of change—leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice."
The letter came a day after Khalil's attorneys filed a motion asking the federal court in the Southern District of New York to immediately release the "recent Columbia graduate student, activist, soon-to-be father, and legal permanent resident."
Samah Sisay, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Monday that "as a result of the federal government's unlawful decision to detain and transfer Mahmoud Khalil to Louisiana in retaliation for his support for Palestinian rights, he faces the loss of his freedom, a profound silencing of his speech, lack of meaningful access to legal counsel, separation from his pregnant U.S. citizen wife, and the prospect of missing the birth of his first child. We filed an emergency bail motion because these extraordinary circumstances require Mr. Khalil's release—and the court has inherent authority to release him and send him home."
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Tlaib Slams Colleagues for Not Demanding Release of Jailed Palestinians
Rep. Rashida Tlaib condemned the refusal of many U.S. lawmakers to "view Palestinians as equal human beings who deserve the same rights, freedom, and human dignity."
Nov 29, 2023
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday called for the release of all hostages and political prisoners currently being held in Israel and Gaza after the U.S. House passed a resolution demanding that Hamas immediately free hostages taken during last month's deadly attack.
Tlaib, who voted for the resolution, said the failure of many of her colleagues to urge Israel to release Palestinians who have been jailed without charge or trial "demonstrates their refusal to view Palestinians as equal human beings who deserve the same rights, freedom, and human dignity."
"Every innocent civilian should be released and reunited with their family, no matter their faith or ethnicity," said Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. "I will continue to call for the release of all hostages, as well as the innocent Palestinians who were arbitrarily detained and being held by the Israeli government indefinitely without charge or trial."
Prior to the Hamas-led October 7 attack, Israel was holding more than 1,300 Palestinians in administrative detention, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has estimated. In the wake of the attack, Israeli authorities arrested thousands of additional Palestinians.
Under a deal that Israel and Hamas reached last week, dozens of Palestinians and Israelis have been freed from captivity during a fragile humanitarian pause. But as Al Jazeera reported, Israel arrested nearly as many Palestinians as it released during the first four days of the pause.
The Israeli military has described all of the Palestinians it has freed under the deal with Hamas—many of them children—as "terrorists." The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill observed that "of the 300 names Israel proposed for potential release, 233 of them have not been convicted of any crimes; they are categorized simply as 'under arrest.'"
"The Netanyahu government and its supporters have promoted a narrative that these prisoners are all hardened terrorists who committed violent crimes," Scahill wrote Sunday. "This assertion relies on a farcical 'Alice in Wonderland'-inspired logic of convicting them by fiat in public before any trial, even the sham trials to which Palestinians are routinely subjected. Israel released a list of the names with alleged crimes they committed. And who is making these allegations? A military that acts as a brutal occupation force against Palestinians in the West Bank."
"Israel is asking the world to believe that these 300 people are all dangerous terrorists, yet it has built a kangaroo military court system for Palestinians that magically churns out a nearly 100% conviction rate," Scahill added. "All of this from a country that constantly promotes itself as the only democracy in the Middle East."
More than 100 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis have been freed during the pause, which is set to end Wednesday. While talks to further extend the pause are underway, the Financial Times reported that "far-right ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition have rejected the possibility of a broader hostage-for-prisoner release deal with Hamas."
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