Pro-Palestine activists daub MoJ building with red paint in protest over hunger strikers

Pro-Palestine demonstrators have daubed the Ministry of Justice building in central London with red paint, demanding that the justice secretary meet eight Palestine Action-affiliated hunger strikers.Two protesters were arrested after Friday’s action, the activists said. They are demonstrating over the treatment of hunger strikers who are due to be held for more than a year before standing trial.They said they sprayed the building with red paint intended to symbolise blood.“We have brought the matter to [the justice secretary] David Lammy because he continues to ignore the friends and family, the lawyers of the hunger strikers. He ignores the fact that their lives are at imminent danger,” one of the demonstrators said in a video posted online.They were supporting what is believed to be the biggest such action in the UK since the hunger strike by IRA prisoners led by Bobby Sands. Nearly 30 Palestine Action-affiliated activists await trial on a range of charges. Twenty-four have been accused in relation to an action last year at Elbit Systems ​in Filton, near Bristol, while five others have been charged over a protest at Brize Norton.​The Filton 24 are scheduled to be tried on charges of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. While the Crown Prosecution Service has said there is a “terrorism connection”, no charges have been brought under the Terrorism Act.A worker cleans the MoJ building in central London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press Wire/ShutterstockA trial in the Brize Norton case has been scheduled for January 2027. All 29 are accused of participating in actions that occurred before Palestine Action was proscribed.On Thursday, the independent MP Jeremy Corbyn called Lammy’s refusal to meet “outrageous”. He said he had written to the justice secretary on 20 November to discuss his constituent Amu Gib, who is on day 41 of a hunger strike. In response to Corbyn’s letter, Lammy said the safety of prisoners “remains our paramount concern”.Without bail, two of the hunger strikers – Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed – are due to be held on remand for 19 months before trial. Four others – Gib, Jon Cink, Lewie Chiaramello and Muhammad Umer Khalid – will have spent 18 months awaiting trial, while Qesser Zuhrah and Teuta Hoxha are expected to spend 17 months in custody before their court date.Gib and Zuhrah have been on hunger strike for 41 days, while Muraisi is on day 40, with Cink, Hoxha and Ahmed on days 37, 34 and 33 respectively. Chiaramello has been striking for 19 days, and Khalid for nine. Five of the group have been taken to hospital so far, the activists have said.Scotland Yard said officers were called at 7.35am on Friday “after protesters began spraying paint on the front of the building”. Both protesters were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, police said.Asked if Lammy’s position was still to refuse a meeting, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Vandalising public property is totally unacceptable and puts unnecessary costs on the police and British taxpayers.“His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service have assured ministers that all cases of prisoner food refusal are being managed in accordance with the relevant policy, and with appropriate medical assessment and support, consistent with prisoner rights.”