Bobby Sands, an IRA political prisoner, died on May 5th, 1981 after a 66 day hunger strike at the age of 27. Khader Adnan, a Palestinian political prisoner, led a hunger strike that ended on his 66th day after an agreement was reached that he would be released. Hunger strikes have proven to be an effective means forpolitical prisoners’ voices to be heard outside of their prison walls.
The case of Khader Adnan and Bobby Sands echo the stories of hundreds of thousands of prisoners who are systematically targeted by the prison industrial complex.The struggles of Mumia Abu Jamal, Nelson Mandela,Ahmad Sa’adat, the Francisco 8, MohammedOthman,Jamal Jum’a, Abdullah Abu Rahmah, Marwan Barghouti, the Cuban 5, among numerous others, reflect the oppression of the wider prison-industrial complex of state-sponsored repression against marginalized populations worldwide.Prisoners represent a microcosm of society’s organized discrimination.
In light of the recent case of Khader Adnan, Alwan for the Arts and Hunter Students for Justice in Palestine invite you to discuss the parallels of these struggles and how you can stand in solidarity with political prisoners.
Join us for a screening of the film Hunger, in which Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison on a hunger strike, followed by a Q&A with Lamis Deek.
Lamis Deek is a Palestinian organizer born in Nablus, Palestine, and raised in New York. She is member of Al-Awda New York. In her practice as a lawyer, she focuses primarily on criminal defense and FBI investigations. She has handled a number of political prisoner cases domestically and witnessed the trial of Ahmad Sa’adat in Palestine.
For more information on Hunger,http://www.imdb.com/