Irish, Jewish protesters demand BBC end silence on PA hunger-strikers

Guest article by Sara Chessa, who attended yesterday’s protest by the London Irish Brigade and anti-Zionist Jews.

Solidarity with Palestine is part of Irish culture, and this was clearly visible on Monday evening in Portland Place, in front of the BBC. Here, the London Irish Brigade organised a protest, backed by Holocaust survivors and other Jewish anti-Zionists, in support of the six activists currently on hunger strike in prison to demand an end to the British state’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. As prisoners of conscience, they are refusing food because they feel they have no other legal way left to be heard.

BBC protest amid blackout

The protesters gathered outside the BBC headquarters to denounce the mainstream media blackout surrounding the hunger strike launched by the six political prisoners who, as human rights activists, targeted the factories and offices of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer and a key supplier of munitions used against Palestinians. In the UK alone, Elbit holds £355 million in contracts, with an additional £2.7 billion deal awaiting the Ministry of Defence’s approval.

Demonstrators accused the BBC of turning a blind eye to the escalating use of repression against people exposing the UK’s deep ties to the arms industry supplying Israel. The messages on the banners made the protesters’ accusations against the BBC and the British state unmistakably clear. One large banner on the pavement, styled in the familiar block font of the broadcaster’s logo, read simply: “BBC Complicit.” Nearby, another declared: “BBC pen pushers, blood on your hands,” directly accusing the corporation of helping obscure the consequences of Britain’s military and political alignment with Israel.

Liberation

Even more detailed was another banner condemning the treatment of the prisoners and the secrecy surrounding their prosecution:

Political prisoners in UK gulag denied fair trial, Crown Prosecution Service refusing evidence of collusion with Elbit! – Now six are on hunger strike! BBC, why are you silent?

Signs were also calling for the liberation of the Filton 24. It’s the group Ahmed, Hoxha, Muraisi and Zurah – four of the activists now on hunger strike – are part of. They were prosecuted for a 2024 action targeting an Elbit Systems plant in Gloucestershire.

The longest banner was a call towards civil society. “Support the hunger-strikers,” it read, highlighting the necessity to raise awareness on the meaning of the battle. In fact, the hunger strike, which started in early November, represents a desperate attempt to bring the state back to international law and an actual alignment with the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, which not only asks the states to punish any possible extermination plan carried out against any people, but to take every possible action to prevent it from happening.

Activist photographer ‘BetterThanReal’ also provided images of the event:

Core demands

The five core demands of the hunger strikers include the end to prison censorship (seizure of letters and monitored phone calls); an immediate bail, as some prisoners have been held for two years without conviction; the right to a fair trial, with full disclosure of key documents exchanged between state officials and arms manufacturers; the de-proscription of Palestine Action with a stop to the use of counter-terror laws to criminalise dissent; and the shutdown of Elbit, eventually ending the collaboration of the British state with a company deeply implicated in violations of international law.

Protesters argued that while activists are risking their lives to expose state-corporate collusion, the BBC has failed to report on the hunger strike entirely.

Called on stage by Irish Brigades’ Chair Frank Glynn, Patrick Reynolds recalled many figures of the Irish resistance.

Thatcher dared to call Bobby Sands a terrorist, but Bobby Sands was a freedom fighter. He was living in occupied territory. He grew up under occupation, and he fought to see a free Ireland. Today, Ireland is still occupied, but we’ll win in the end.

The parallels with the present are evident. Today, those fighting for the liberation of Palestine from a colonial power are frequently labelled by the British establishment as terrorists, and this is the lie that the BBC, according to the protesters, perpetuates when it ignores the freedom fighters of today.

Reynolds added:

People on hunger strike represent us. They represent truth. They represent the march of history that won’t be stopped. They’re marching through the lies that Starmer put out. And they will win in the end.

Featured images via Sara Chessa