Pro-Palestine activist on hunger strike says he will begin refusing water

London, United Kingdom – A pro-Palestine activist on hunger strike plans to start refusing fluids as well as food, telling media that he hopes his “drastic action” pressures the government into engaging with his protest demands.

Umer Khalid, a Palestine Action-linked remand prisoner, stopped eating 13 days ago. He is currently receiving fluids with electrolytes, sugars and salts but said he will stop drinking altogether from Saturday.

While the body can survive for weeks without food, dehydration is certain to have fatal consequences in a far shorter time.

The escalation comes days after three other hunger-striking remand prisoners affiliated with Palestine Action ended their protests, claiming victory.

“The only thing that seems to have any impact, whether that is positive or negative, is drastic action,” Khalid, 22, told media from prison via an intermediary. “The strike reflects the severity of this imprisonment. Being in this prison is not living life. Our lives have been paused. The world spins, and we sit in a concrete room. This strike reflects the severity of my demands.”

Khalid is calling for immediate bail; an end to alleged censorship in prison – authorities have been accused of withholding mail, calls and books and denying visitation rights; an inquiry into alleged British involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza; and the release of surveillance footage from Royal Air Force (RAF) spy flights that flew over Gaza on April 1, 2024, when British aid workers were killed in an Israeli attack.

Khalid is among five activists accused of breaking into the United Kingdom’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire in June and spray-painting two Voyager refuelling and transport planes. The incident, which was claimed by Palestine Action, caused millions of pounds worth of damage, according to the British government, which later proscribed the protest group as a “terrorist” organisation.

Critics have condemned the ban as illiberal overreach, given that Palestine Action’s stated objective is to use nonviolent means to counter Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians and what it says is British complicity in it.

Khalid denies the charges against him of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and conspiracy to enter a prohibited place for purposes prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK.