This week, T Hoxha ended her prison hunger strike after 28 days.
The 29-year-old was part of the Filton 18, a group of (now 24) Palestine Action activists that allegedly forced their way into an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol, England, in August 2024, and destroyed weapons intended for use in Gaza.
Elbit is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.
Hoxha has been held without a trial since November 2024. She was moved from a women’s prison to the mixed HMP Peterborough after Palestine Action (PA) was banned by the UK government in July. She recently told Novara Media that her treatment became worse after PA was proscribed as a terrorist organization.
She says staff began calling her a terrorist, she was removed from her job as an assistant at the prison library, prohibited from participating in recreational activities, and the prison started withholding her mail.
Hoxha began her hunger strike in response to these moves, and her action has secured multiple victories.
She’s had recreational activities reinstated, and she is receiving her mail. However, she’s still not allowed to work in the library.
According to reports, the library is enforcing the library ban through the “Joint Extremism Unit,” which is using the PA’s proscription to classify her as a terrorist. Her solicitor is taking legal action on the issue.
When Casey Goonan, a prisoner being held in California’s Santa Rita Jail, learned about Hoxha’s hunger strike at the end of August, they joined in solidarity with their cellmate.
Goonan released a statement announcing the strike.
“As captives imprisoned for our participation in the Palestinian liberation movement in the west, we have a responsibility to each other across borders to pursue our lives in prison with the same steadfastness as the Palestinian prisoner movement held captive in Israeli prisons,” it read.
“The states that we have been captured by are the enablers of the Zionist entity’s accelerated genocide and the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the ongoing genocides of Black and Indigenous people whose lands they continue to occupy,” it continued.
In January, Goonan pleaded guilty to federal arson charges connected to the Oakland federal building and UC Berkeley in June 2024.
According to the plea agreement, Goonan threw rocks at the building and lit off Molotov cocktails nearby. They also placed a bag containing Molotov cocktails under a University of California Police Department patrol car, which caused it to catch on fire.
Hoxha recently recorded a letter for Goonan.
“You have become a friend to me through this shared act of resistance, pushing our bodies across the red line of no return,” she told them.
You can listen to the entire letter here.
Tlaib censure
There’s another attempt to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
This one comes from Rep. Buddy Carter (R-MO). He claims that her recent remarks at the People’s Conference for Palestine were “beneath that of a civilized person, let alone a member of Congress, as they “endangered the lives of Jewish people by celebrating a terrorist regime.”
The censure resolution doesn’t say much about Tlaib’s speech. Most of it is devoted to comments that other speakers made during the conference. He points out that Tlaib referred to her congressional colleagues as warmongers, cowards, and sellouts. Maybe that angers Carter, but it’s certainly not antisemitic.
Carter’s effort comes amid a flurry of congressional attacks on Palestine supporters.
In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) targeting the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) in a recent letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. Cotton also recently sent a letter to the acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner Scott Bessent, asking for an investigation into PYM’s nonprofit status.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) is demanding records from The People’s Forum, a New York-based left-wing organization, partially over its stance on Israel.
“Since Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, The People’s Forum has been responsible for an endless amount of chaos and disruption around the country,” reads his letter to the group. “On October 8, 2023, just one day after the terrorist attacks, The People’s Forum organized a protest in Times Square ‘to stand with the people of Palestine, who have the right to resist apartheid, occupation and oppression’ that even Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic Governor, condemned as ‘abhorrent and morally repugnant.'”
“Even worse, while promoting the event on October 7—the same day that the atrocities occurred—your organization justified the murder of over 1,200 civilians by saying that the terrorists responsible for the attack ‘have the right to resist,'” he continued. “Not only have you been involved in this and other incidents as part of your anti-Israel activism, some of which have led to violence but your organization has also participated in the recent anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots in Los Angeles which resulted in violence and dozens of arrests as well as protests in response to President Trump’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.”
Smith also claims that the group is connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and should lose its nonprofit status as a result.
The People’s Forum released a statement in response to Smith’s letter.
“These attacks are part of a broader, dangerous escalation against our movements and any act of dissent against the Trump administration,” it reads. “We are seeing a new wave of McCarthyism, where critics of U.S. foreign policy are labeled as foreign agents. But history teaches us a powerful lesson: efforts to silence dissent will ultimately backfire. We will not back down. We must stand together, now more than ever, to defend our right to speak out and organize.
“We call on people of conscience everywhere to join us in this moment of struggle. Let us show them that we will not be divided or silenced. Our collective action is our greatest strength.”
Odds & Ends
🇮🇱 Understanding Israel’s attack on Qatar, and what it means for the region
🇶🇦 Qatar refutes Trump’s claim that U.S. warned the country of Israeli strikes
📰 Electronic Intifada: New York Times misstates Palestinian death toll, downplays genocide
🇺🇸 Responsible Statecraft: Netanyahu’s delusion: If you don’t support me, you’re not ‘MAGA’
💥 Truthout: Israel Destroys Gaza Human Rights Group’s HQ, Days After It Was Sanctioned by U.S.
💰 Counterpunch: The Price of Genocide: How US Funding Sustains an Unraveling Israeli Economy
🫏 In These Times: Democratic Leadership Still Hasn’t Caught Up to the Party’s Base on Gaza
🇬🇧 Common Dreams: Thousands Protest London Weapons Fair Over UK Complicity in Gaza Genocide
🐎 Jewish Insider: Texas Democratic Senate recruit James Talarico takes critical view of Israel
🤔 Axios: Israel’s attack in Qatar infuriated Trump advisers, officials say
🏫 Times of Israel: UMass Amherst rejects BDS at upcoming academic conference
Under a British, Zionist regime that is supplying a genocide, is it a surprise that hunger strikers are largely ignored by the regime and its media mouthpieces? A government that enables the drowning of immigrants in the Channel cares nothing for the lives of its political prisoners.