The Body as the Final Weapon: Palestine Action and the Spirit of Bobby Sands
When the machinery of the state is totally dedicated to the protection of genocide; when the courts act as private security for arms dealers and weapons manufacturers; and when the political class—from Labour to Tory—competes to see who can bow lower to the Zionist lobby, the only territory left to reclaim is the body itself.
In the United Kingdom, a group of political prisoners from Palestine Action have entered the very dangerous phase of a hunger strike. They are currently locked in British prisons not for violence against people, but for the “crime” of dismantling the supply chain of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms dealer. They are using their starving bodies to scream a truth that the BBC refuses to whisper: Britain is an active participant in the slaughter of Gaza.
The Criminalization of Conscience
Palestine Action has done what no government in the West has the moral spine to do: they have physically intervened to stop the flow of weaponry to a genocidal regime. For years, they have scaled factory roofs, smashed machinery, and blocked shipment gates. They have exposed Elbit Systems not as a legitimate business, but as a merchant of death that markets its drones as “battle-tested” on Palestinian children.
The British state’s response has been draconian. Abandoning all pretense of impartiality, the legal system has utilized counter-terrorism powers and restrictive bail conditions to crush this movement. We have seen the absurd spectacle of Greta Thunberg being arrested—like hundreds before her—simply for the “crime” of holding a placard. Her global celebrity offered no shield against a state desperate to protect Israeli profits, revealing that even peaceful dissent is now treated as a “terrorist” threat to public order.
But the treatment of the core activists—the ones currently refusing food—marks a descent into authoritarian darkness. Kamran Ahmed, Heba........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Waka Ikeda
Mark Travers Ph.d
Grant Arthur Gochin
Tarik Cyril Amar
Chester H. Sunde