On 14 January 2026, Heba as well as  Kamran Ahmed and Lewis Chiaramello, ended their hunger strike.  Heba had been on hunger strike for 73 days. Their pause  followed the news that Elbit Systems had lost a £2 billion contract with the Ministry of Defence. The contract would have seen Elbit provide training to the British army for over ten years. The collective action of the hunger strikers has exposed the reality of Elbit export licenses and their key part in Israel’s genocide to a wider audience.

 Heba had been forcefully moved from His Majesty’s Prison(HMP) Bronzefield in Kent, where she was close to her mother and friends, to HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire, intentionally increasing her isolation. She spent the last 4 months, out of which 73 days were her strike, unable to see her mother. On the final day of her hunger strike, her transfer from New Hall to Bronzefield was finally accepted.

 The strike has also achieved better conditions and meetings between leaders of the prison healthcare and  representatives of the prisoners. And their steadfastness and collective action have shown us what resilience and courage is.

Balfour

 It was no accident that 2 November 2025 was when 8 of the Filton 24  started a hunger strike, with clear demands against British complicity in the  genocide of Palestinians. The  Balfour Declaration was signed on 2 November 1917.

The declaration was a pledge by Britain, and its then Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour to establish ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine. The statement was addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a key figurehead of the British Zionist  community. This was a fulfillment of Zionist aspirations and  a massive betrayal of the Palestinian people.

After World War 1, in 1920,  a British mandate was set up in historic Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations. At this point the Jewish population of the area was between 3-7 per cent.

 Contrary to the way it is usually presented in the mainstream media, it was not sympathy for Jews – facing pogroms in Eastern Europe in particular – that led to the declaration. Balfour had been British Prime Minister in 1905 and presided over the first piece of anti-migrant legislation ever passed at Westminster; the Aliens Act. That Act was specifically targeted against Jewish migrants.  Balfour was a racist and an antisemite.  At the time of the Balfour Declaration, the one Jewish cabinet minister – India Secretary Edwin Montagu – opposed the declaration, describing it as antisemitic.

The Jewish population of historic Palestine grew significantly over the period of the Mandate so that by 1946 almost a third of the population was Jewish. Clearly the antisemitism of the Nazis and the holocaust itself had a major impact on this, but so too did the failure of Western European states, including Britain, to welcome Jewish refugees. 

Meanwhile the mandate was governed in such a way to equip Jews with the tools for  establishing self-rule, at the expense of Palestinian Arabs. This was highlighted when the British allowed Zionists to establish self-governing institutions, such as the Jewish agency in order to prepare themselves for a state when it came to it, while Palestinians were forbidden from doing so, paying the way for the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Umer restarts strike

Umer Khalid, one of the Filton 24, has been held at HMP Wormwood scrubs for over 6 months . On 10 January he restarted his hunger strike and warned the government with a simple sentence

‘You have 14 days to enter into negotiations, after that, I stop drinking water. You have had over 60 days to do the right thing. So if you wish to call our bluff, then I wish to call yours.’

Umer is currently on day 9 of his hunger strike, leaving the state with 6 days to respond to his demands.

These young people have been held on remand, without bail for 18 months as they await trial for their non-violent direct action to stop the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.

The first of the Filton 24 to have their cases heard in court, Jordan, Zoe, Fatima, Ellie, Sam, and Charlotte are now waiting for the verdict of the jury.  Summing ups concluded on 13 January at Woolwich Crown Court, after a trial which is crucial for the right to take direct action. The final speech of Rajiv Menon KC on behalf of defendant Charlotte Head has rightly gained a great deal of attention in brilliantly encapsulating what is at stake.  Activists have mobilised outside the  court, as they have for the many weeks to make this clear.

We support our prisoners and their continuous fight against the empire.

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