At breakfast time today, 29-year old Teuta Hoxha, known to her friends as ‘T’, became the fifth prisoner to join the Prisoners for Palestine rolling hunger-strike.
The protest began on the 2nd of November, when prisoners Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gibb refused food at Bronzefield prison, to protest their continued imprisonment without trial, and in support of a short list of demands, including the right to a fair trial, an end to interference with their mail, and the deproscription of Palestine Action. The rolling hunger-strike was soon joined by Heba Muraisi, in New Hall prison, and Jon Cink in Bronzefield. T Hoxha, at Peterborough prison, is the fifth prisoner to join the open-ended hunger-strike.
T was arrested in a dramatic dawn raid, by counter-terrorism police, on November 19th 2024, accused of being involved in the Palestine Action raid on Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems‘ site, at Filton, Bristol. Like the other members of the Filton 24, she was held and interrogated under the Terrorism Act, but not charged with any terrorist offence. She has been in prison, for nearly a year now, and is not expected to go to trial until April of next year.
Originally held at Bronzefield prison, T was subject to a sudden transfer to HMP Peterborough on the day that MPs voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a supposed ‘terrorist’ group, putting the group in the same bracket as ISIS and Al-Quaeda.
Following proscription, like the other pro-Palestine prisoners, T saw a dramatic escalation in her mistreatment, which eventually forced her to go on a hunger protest in August, being joined by 2 political prisoners in America, before winning her demands after more than 3 weeks without food.
The first of the hunger-striking Prisoners for Palestine have now gone a week without food, but despite the government being informed of the impending protest 2 weeks before it began, there has still been no response whatsoever.
Commenting on Teuta Hoxha joining the hunger-strike, Prisoners for Palestine spokesperson Audrey Corno, who was imprisoned without trial, alongside her, before being granted bail, said: “I am astounded by T’s resilience in joining her comrades in this hunger-strike, having just completed one 2 months ago. In our last visit, she told me, “Don’t worry about me. I’ve read about Guantanamo, and I am embarrassed – I will do this hunger-strike in comparative comfort. Whatever happens to me cannot compare to the scenes in Palestine. Therefore I will persevere.” This is the strength the British State is up against.”
For media and press enquiries, contact us on prisoners4palestine@proton.me