No-one can doubt the justice of their cause, nor the injustice of their treatment. The eight hunger strikers, some of whom have now been refusing food for more than fifty days, are acting in opposition to the genocide of the Palestinian people being conducted by Israel with the continuing complicity of the British government.

There is room for debate about the use of the hunger strike as a political weapon. That is a matter for collective judgement.  But the willingness to put your body, even your life, on the line for a cause supported by all of decent and progressive humanity, must command respect.

The hunger strikers all face charges arising from initiatives taken by Palestine Action.  This group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the ever-authoritarian Starmer government earlier this year.

This was itself an unprecedented move, since nothing done by Palestine Action had targeted people. Approve of their actions, targeting institutions of British support for Israel, or not, they corresponded to no hitherto existing definition of “terrorism”.

It seems most likely that Starmer was promoted in his banning of PA by President Trump, whom he is ever-willing to oblige above and beyond.  Trump was angry that his golf course in Scotland had been a focus for a PA protest.

Those arrested have not been charged with any crime of violence against persons. They are, moreover, guilty of nothing until they are convicted, if they ever are. That is one principle of traditional British jurisprudence that this government has not yet got around to overturning.

Yet they have been remanded in custody, despite posing no threat to the general public by any conceivable reckoning. Still more scandalous, they will have been in prison for at least 18 months before even coming to trial.

And will they receive a fair trial at the end of this elongated period?  It seems unlikely. Doubtless Justice Secretary David Lammy will manoeuvre to ensure no jury is involved, just as the state seems determined that the judicial review of Palestine Action’s proscription is transferred to the safest judicial hands available.

All this is the sharp end of a general assault on the capacity of the immense Palestine solidarity movement to function.  It constitutes a threat to the establishment that the latter appears less and less willing to tolerate.

It is also indicative of the authoritarianism – now longer creeping, but galloping – gripping British politics.  Effective dissent is barely tolerated, and all the usual “free speech” champions go missing when the cause is Palestine or another issue challenging establishment prerogatives.

So the hunger strikers are sacrificing for Palestine but also for democracy and freedom. The refusal of Lammy to even meet their representatives, when it is a matter of perhaps saving the lives of idealistic and peaceful young people, appears incomprehensible.

However, it is all of a piece with the political record of this most venal politician, whose rise in Labour’s ranks has been marked by the reversal of any principle he has ever claimed, a man who makes the Vicar of Bray appear a model of integrity.

He deserves to be forever damned for his handling of this issue.  Any tragedy that may ensue is on his account and he should be hounded out of political life as a result.

So this Christmas let our first thoughts be for Amu Gib, Qesser Zurah, Kamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Lewie Chimarello. 

Their cause is ours. We salute them. They should be immediately released.