Major anti-Israel groups have launched campaigns in support of an American alleged serial arsonist and British political vandal as they engage in a hunger strike for better prison conditions.
Palestine Action member Tueta Hoxha, who was arrested for her alleged involvement in the violent August 2024 Filton factory attack, has been hunger striking for 28 days, but her cause was picked up by notable anti-Israel groups last week.
Hoxha, according to updates by Prisoners for Palestine and Workshops for Gaza, has issued demands that her mail be released, her prison library job be restored, and she be given recreational activities. Awaiting trial since the Elbit UK’s South Gloucestershire Horizon facility was breached with a van and a security guard, and two Bristol Police officers were wounded by activists armed with sledgehammers, whips, and other homemade weapons, Hoxha reportedly asserts she is being treated as a “terrorist” and subjected to harsh treatment.
The alleged vandal’s conditions were allegedly tightened following the July 5 proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization by the UK government – with the 2024 Filton attack serving as one of the primary catalysts for the group’s banning.
Supporters warn that Hoxha’s condition is worsening as her hunger strike continues. Workshops for Gaza has urged activists to contact the prison to insist her demands are met. Supporters say that she still has not been given access to her mail, but there has been movement on the other demands.
CODEPINK issued a statement of support for Hoxha on Saturday, and during last weekend’s Detroit People’s Conference for Palestine, one of the masters of ceremony issued a support for Hoxha urging the release of the “political prisoner. On Wednesday Within Our Lifetime held a protest at the New York City UK consulate. WOL alleged that the UK was complicit in a supposed genocide in Gaza, and Hoxha was jailed for “resisting” defense industry connections with Israel.
“Every act of repression in the UK must be answered with resistance,” WOL said on X/Twitter. “Our duty is to break the siege on Gaza by any means necessary. Gaza cannot be left alone. Palestine must be liberated. “
Arsonist crimes in California
Hoxha’s cause was taken up by another deemed a “political prisoner” for his violent anti-Israel activism. Oakland resident Casey Goonan, who pleaded guilty in January to federal arson charges for a series of June 2024 firebombings, joined Hoxha in her hunger strike on August 26. A cellmate at the Santa Rita Jail reportedly joined Goonan in his hunger strike, according to a support group for the arsonist.
“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 movement held captive in Israeli prisons,” Goonan said, according to the Free Casey Now committee. “The states we have been captured by are the enablers of the Zionist entity’s accelerated genocide of Palestinians, as well as the ongoing genocides of Black and indigenous people whose lands they continue to occupy.”
Since Goonan’s joining the strike, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Pal-Awda New York/New Jersey, and Writers Against the War on Gaza joined the campaign, on September 6, urging supporters to join the mass email campaign to the authorities. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has in the past been supportive of Goonan, also urged activists to support the hunger strikers.
“Political prisoners are the compass of our movement, and we must act accordingly,” CUAD said on X on August 31.
On June 1, 2024, Goonan placed a six-pack of Molotov cocktails underneath the fuel tank of a University of California Police Department (UCPD) patrol car at UC Berkeley and set the vehicle on fire. Later that day, he set a fire to a patch of grass near the Starr East Asian Library.
On June 11, Goonan tried to set the Ronald Dellums Federal Building and Courthouse on fire, but was interrupted by security officers. In a June 13 incident, the serial arsonist threw a firebomb at UC Berkeley’s Koshland Hall, setting fire to an area outside the building.
Three days later, a fire was started on campus at the Dwinelle Annex Construction Site. Anonymous manifestos published during the arson spree claimed that they were in response to the country and the university’s position on the Israel-Hamas War.
“In America, we are all free to express our political views and petition the government. But we are not free to do so using violence,” US Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said in a January statement. “Politically motivated violence undermines our democracy, and we will continue to investigate and prosecute those who engage in it.”
Goonan is set to be sentenced in September and could be facing a 20-year maximum and five-year minimum prison sentence.
The campaign for Hoxha occurs amid a wider push of support to deproscribe Palestine Action, with 857 people showing support for the terrorist organization arrested on Saturday for a Westminster protest. This is in addition to another 700 people who had been arrested since July 5 for support of a proscribed organization, with 114 charged last Monday.