Belfast supports Palestine hunger strikers, recalls 1981 events

As fireworks lit the Belfast sky on New Year’s Eve, the city’s streets buzzed with a protest in solidarity with pro-Palestinian activists on hunger strike in British prisons, highlighting the city’s history of political activism and murals that reflect its troubled past. The hunger strike is part of an international campaign urging the British government to intervene as the health of the detainees deteriorates, echoing the Irish hunger strikes of 1981. The prisoners demand release on bail, fair trial access, and de-proscription of Palestine Action, with some already hospitalized after weeks without food. As tensions rise, fears of history repeating itself loom, with memories of past hunger strikes driving a new generation’s solidarity with Palestine.

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