Activist Ends Hunger Strike as UK Media Yawns
📰 THE STORY: The New Arab reports that Umer Khalid, a pro-Palestine activist held in HMP Wormwood Scrubs, concluded a three-day thirst strike after meeting with the prison governor to address his dire conditions. He vowed to 'resist' and highlighted the plight of Palestinian political prisoners. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Palestinian prisoners have been using hunger
strikes as a tool of resistance against inhumane detention conditions and administrative detention—imprisonment without charge or trial—since the British Mandate era, intensifying after the 1967 occupation. Figures like Marwan Barghouti, arrested in 2002, have led mass hunger strikes, drawing parallels to Nelson Mandela's imprisonment under apartheid, which the international community eventually
condemned. Double Standard: When Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition figure, conducted a hunger strike in 2021, Western media outlets, including the BBC and CNN, ran daily updates, framed it as a human rights crisis, and called for international intervention. Umer Khalid's three-day thirst strike, against conditions in a UK prison and in solidarity with Palestinians, receives minimal, if any,
mention in these same outlets. This disparity highlights who is deemed a 'political prisoner' worthy of global outrage versus who is dismissed as merely an 'activist.' Follow the Money: The UK government, like the US, provides substantial aid and maintains strong diplomatic and economic ties with the government of Israel. In 2022, the UK's trade with Israel was reported at ÂŁ5.7 billion, and it