Labor for Palestine National Network and National Lawyers Guild International Committee Statement of Solidarity with the UK Hunger Strikers
December 20, 2025
Labor for Palestine National Network, together with the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, stands in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian solidarity activists imprisoned in Britain who are collectively undertaking a hunger strike in protest of their unjust detention and the criminalization of resistance to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Of the 33 people held without bail under the UK’s “Terrorism” Act for direct action aimed at disrupting the machinery of genocide, at least six are currently on hunger strike, with others prepared to join as their demands continue to be ignored. These hunger strikers are demanding: an end to the censorship of their communications; immediate and unconditional release on bail; the right to a fair trial, including full disclosure of communications between Elbit Systems, Israel, and the British state; the de-proscription of Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization; and the permanent closure of all Elbit facilities and subsidiaries in the UK.
As formations rooted in internationalist, anti-imperialist solidarity—with Labor for Palestine National Network grounded in working-class struggle and National Lawyers Guild International Committee committed to standing in solidarity with political prisoners and movements resisting imperialism—we recognize hunger strikes as a historic weapon of last resort used by political prisoners confronting colonial and imperial repression—from Ireland and South Africa to U.S. prisons and colonized Palestine itself. The British state’s use of “terrorism” laws to detain and silence those who acted to disarm genocide is part of a broader Western strategy to criminalize liberation struggles and international solidarity, while shielding arms manufacturers like Elbit Systems from accountability. This repression mirrors the sanctioning of Palestinian prisoner solidarity organizations, the global policing of BDS, and the routine targeting of workers, students, lawyers, and organizers who refuse complicity in settler colonial and imperialist violence.
Labor for Palestine was founded in 2004 to reclaim the legacy of militant labor solidarity with Palestine and to answer the call of Palestinian trade unions to end all complicity with Israeli settler colonialism and genocide and to uphold the Palestinian BDS picket line. National Lawyers Guild International Committee has a long history of supporting political prisoners, challenging imperialist repression, and upholding international law against war, occupation, and collective punishment. That shared commitment requires standing with political prisoners whose actions sought to stop the flow of weapons and profits sustaining mass death in Gaza.
The crime is not acting to disarm genocide—the crime is arming settler-colonial genocide. We know that sending arms to terrorist settlers and the Israeli state is illegal, yet our governments continue to violate the will of the people. Palestine Action is the result of the collective will to disarm genocide through an immediate arms embargo.
Labor for Palestine National Network stands with the prisoners and the people.
We call on unions, rank-and-file workers, legal workers, and labor bodies to demand that the UK government:
- Meet the hunger strikers’ demands.
- De-proscribe Palestine Action.
- Shut down Elbit Systems.
- Free all political prisoners and prisoners of war.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.
For concrete ways to take action—including contacting British embassies, organizing protests, pitching media coverage, and supporting the prisoners directly—see the TOOLKIT FOR UK HUNGER STRIKERS (U.S. VERSION)
