From Ireland to Palestine... Between the hunger strike and the education strike

The summer of 1981 came to the hunger strike in Ireland, a decisive moment for the Irish cause, led by Bobby Sands and three others from the "Miz" prison, where they began to refuse food until Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time, began to recognize the rights of "terrorist" prisoners as political prisoners and allowed them with their "five demands". Bobby Sands is a pioneering libertarian, who was imprisoned for possession of a firearm and bombings. He was the first to lose his life after 66 days of hunger strike, when he was elected to a seat in parliament. After Sands' death, riots broke out, bus burnings, attacks on the British Embassy in the Republic of Ireland, and there were mass demonstrations around the world. Riots and civil disobedience broke out in all the streets of Belfast. It was then that the African National Congress in South Africa and Nelson Mandela expressed their support for the hunger strikers (Mandela himself claimed that he was directly inspired by Sands to launch hunger strikes against the apartheid government in South Africa) as well as Palestine and the PLO announced their support for the hunger strikers and their rights In the debate between terrorism and political rights to emancipation.

More than 100,000 funerals were attended by Sands, who said that "our revenge will be the laughter of our children."

This method was used by the Irish Republicans in the year 1917 and also during the Anglo-Irish war, and the first hunger strike carried out by the Republicans led to the death of twelve prisoners, the first of whom was "Thomas Ash" in the "Montjoy" prison, and the use of the strike in Ireland reached its peak in 1981 when Prisoners from the Irish army waged what was known as a comprehensive protest against the conversion of their description from prisoners of war to criminal prisoners, and after the martyrdom of the Irish activist Bobby Sands due to the intransigence of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the political hunger strike received huge publicity in the history of the struggle against the occupation and the achievement of rights. And it was mentioned in the "Guinness Book of Records" the world record for a hunger strike without force-feeding for a period of 94 days in 1920 by "John and Peter Crowley", "Thomas Donovan", "Michael Burke", "Michael O'Reilly" , and “Christopher Upton”, “John Bauer”, “Joseph Kenny”, and “Shane Hennessy” in Cork City Prison, and that number was exceeded by the Palestinian prisoner Samer Al-Issawi, who had the longest open hunger strike in history, which lasted nine months and ended with an agreement with The prison administration requires liberation, and the strike of the prisoner Ayman Al-Sharawneh, which lasted 260 days and ended with liberation, and the prisoner Hana Al-Shalabi, who went on strike for 43 days, and before that the prisoner, Ataf Alyan, who went on strike for 40 continuous days, and the strike of the prisoner Ayman Tabish for more than 4 months, and dozens of names that defeated the jailer and surpassed global strikes open for food.

Khader Adnan, a father of nine, lost his life on the 2nd of May, during his fifth hunger strike after the 86th day. When Adnan was asked where he gets his strength from, he replied: From his faith in God, his belief in our just cause and from his loving wife "Randa" who he can rely on for anything! Adnan is only 44 years old, and he is a human being who fought for freedom and documented it forever in the history of the Palestinian struggle.

I am sure that the Palestinian people feel with the prisoners and agonize over their suffering. The hunger strike is the most peaceful and most painful way a person may use his body to demand his rights when all other methods fail.
Adnan went through several strikes:

2012 He went on strike for 66 days, during which he wrested his freedom from the occupation

2015 He went on strike for 52 days, during which he wrested his freedom from the occupation

2018 He went on strike for 59 days, during which he wrested his freedom from the occupation

2021 He went on strike for 25 days, during which he wrested his freedom from the occupation

2023 He went on an open hunger strike for 86 days, and rose as a martyr declaring his eternal freedom.

I have to stand at some manifestations of our solidarity with the prisoners. In announcing the comprehensive strike, it collides with stones and rubber tires dumped on the streets, fires blazing in the middle of the road, and several attempts to close the internal Palestinian roads. The prisoners, in no way, and it does not affect the Israeli occupation, but it spreads a culture of chaos, vandalism and irresponsibility that will not benefit and will not please the heroic prisoners. What hurts me the most is that thousands of citizens and school students spend the day of the comprehensive strike in their homes.

It is necessary to preserve the sit-in tent that represents different unions and institutions, it is necessary to carry banners and phrases as an expression of solidarity with the prisoners and to confirm that freedom is inevitably coming, but the train of freedom in this way stands on the island of the road without movement. Those who stand in the march or sit in the tent are the citizens, the families of the prisoners, who practice sacrifice and resistance and dream of liberation in the name of all of us.

We need to employ the mind and contemporary ideas to form reactions that are commensurate with the language of the age, technology, and our right to resist in all its forms, while emphasizing that education is a right and an honorable and strategic resistance tool that must be protected and emphasized. The national mobilization program around the issue of prisoners and martyrs of the captive movement must include building and investing in nearly a million students in Palestinian schools to provide the new generation with knowledge and culture about this humanitarian issue and how to claim rights.

The question is repeated, how do we support the prisoners’ cause? What do we teach the new generation about prisoners, child prisoners, the captive movement, and the martyrs of the captive movement? About the martyr Khader Adnan, the number of strikes he fought and their goal, in art, in theatre, in songs about the issue of prisoners in prisons, in ideas and national initiatives that support the cause of prisoners, in launching contemporary and creative electronic campaigns that show their cause to the world. How do we use social media to express pain and solidarity, or shoot videos and launch hashtags for the prisoners’ strike, freedom and dignity? Some of us are artists, so you see beautiful paintings that express the prisoners and their suffering, and some of us are those who love music and present their duty through it. And at other times we announce the general and comprehensive strike, stop working and close Shops, schools, production and study institutions stop. I affirm here that the prisoners need the people's backing and support for their battle of steadfastness inside the Israeli prisons, and I understand the extent to which the news of support and support that the prisoners receive from abroad affects their psyche, their steadfastness, and the continuation of their resistance. We all have to support the prisoners, and the leadership must put the freedom of the prisoners at the top of the list of priorities, and every mother and father who celebrates the graduation of their children this month should feel the suffering of others who graduate, get married and have children while their fathers are in prisons. They sacrifice and resist on our behalf and in the name of all of us for the sake of Palestine and freedom.

Until the release of the prisoners is achieved, let us work for the freedom of these heroes and let our reactions and activities be meaningful and significant. Instead of closing schools, we must allocate a school hour to talk and write about the prisoners, and instead of stopping public work and preventing employees from reaching their offices and the merchant losing his household income for that. Today, we have to work, produce and provide for the prisoners and their families.

Blessed is this victory for the prisoners and their patient families, for after the night there is nothing but the dawn of glory that transcends.

Education is a right, education is resistance, education is a strategy for liberation.

Dr.. Dalal Erekat: Professor of Diplomacy and Strategic Planning, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Arab American University.