UK students launch hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners

A group of students in the University of Manchester have gone on hunger strike to raise awareness about the abuses Palestinian prisoners are being subjected to in Israeli regime jails.

According to Press TV, so far, five students have joined the movement, which began on Thursday and would last at least a week.

The hunger strike is an act of solidarity with a mass strike by more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, who have been refusing food for two weeks to denounce the harsh conditions in Israeli regime jails.

Palestinian detainees complain that they have been subjected to assault and torture at Israeli prisons.

Dubbed the Freedom and Dignity Strike, the ongoing action began on April 17. There are currently 6,500 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, according to rights group Addameer.

Mohammed Ezzeldin, one of the five UK students on hunger strike, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the prisoners were held in “abhorrent” conditions

“Political prisoners in Palestine are being held for up to six months without charge or fair trial,” he told the Qatari news outlet.

“They are facing abhorrent conditions in jail, with no access to medical treatment or visitation rights,” the student added.

The students hoped that the hunger strike would prompt university officials to drop disciplinary action against activists who took part in a pro-Palestinian protest in March.

The university has been pressing disciplinary charges against two activists, who are accused trespassing and damage to property after unfurling a banner in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS.

SS