Dear Khader and family,
When I was a young man growing up in Birmingham, England I became aware of a courageous Irishman who was on hunger strike protesting against the British Government's withdrawal of political status of IRA prisoners. His name was Bobby Sands and hitherto I didn't have a clue about my Irish roots and Ireland's historic struggle against British rule. However, Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers who all paid the supreme sacrifice changed all that. Their sacrifice was a defining time in my life, it not only politicised me but made me aware not just of Ireland's struggle but Palestine's struggle too. I fear that unless the Israelis do the just and right thing and release you then history could be about to repeat itself in terms of what happened to the hunger strikers in Ireland in 1981 and now your courageous stand against Israeli injustice. Whatever happens, you have brought international attention to the terrible plight that the Palestinian prisoners have to endure in Israeli prisons. No matter what, you are an inspiration to all oppressed peoples and your courage will never be forgotten. You will go down in history as a symbol of resistance against injustice and oppression.
"It is not those who inflict the most, but those who endure the most who shall prevail," Terence MacSwiney, IRA hunger striker who died after 74 days on hunger strike in Brixton Prison in October, 1920.
Yours in solidarity
Eugene Egan