UK ‘preemptively’ discharges pro-Palestine hunger strikers recovering in hospital
Pro-Palestine activists imprisoned in the United Kingdom have been discharged from the hospital just days after ending their prolonged hunger strike, raising concerns over potentially life-threatening health risks.
Prisoners from the Palestine Action group: Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi and Lewie Chiaramello, who had been refusing food on alternate days due to type 1 diabetes, were the last of seven hunger strikers to end their protest on Thursday.
Their decision came shortly after the UK government announced it had revoked a $2 billion contract with Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.
Ahmed and Muraisi were hospitalized to begin "refeeding," a process by which nutrients are administered to restore body weight.
If not managed effectively, there is a risk of “refeeding syndrome,” a potentially life-threatening condition caused by severe fluid and electrolyte shifts.
"This is a very fraught moment," James Smith, an emergency doctor who has provided support to the hunger strikers and their families, told Middle East Eye.
"One of the highest risk stages of a hunger strike is, counter intuitively to many people, the moment that you decide to stop, and that is because of all of the additional risks that then present themselves if it's not managed effectively," he added.
Families of the prisoners and doctors have raised concerns about the management of the process for the prisoners.
Doctors say two of the prisoners who ended their strikes last month were discharged from the hospital “prematurely” despite developing “various unusual symptoms.”
Qesser Zuhrah, a prisoner held at HMP Bronzefield, said she was discharged on December 22, just five days after ending her strike.
Zuhrah’s next of kin, Ella Moulsdale, said that doctors had advised that Zuhrah should stay at least a week in hospital, as she had developed a number of “worrying” symptoms during the refeeding process, including vision loss.
Palestine Action has focused much of its campaign on Elbit Systems UK, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer in the UK, which has been supplying weapons to the Israeli military during the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.
In July, the UN human rights chief sharply criticized Britain’s ban on the activist group, calling it a “disturbing” misuse of the UK’s counter terrorism laws and urging the government to reverse the decision.
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