From Pelican Bay to Palestine

“From Pelican Bay to Palestine” celebrates and commemorates the strength and sacrifice of hunger strikers across California and Palestine. The mural depicts two hands—one sleeve bearing the Palestinian flag, the other a blue jumpsuit—reaching out from bars across outlines of these geographies. Beneath a pelican and Palestinian sunbird swooping overhead, the hands clasp around a fork and a spoon as the sun rises. A quote from Palestinian revolutionary and martyr Khader Adnan frames the piece from below, reading: “My dignity is more precious than food.” 

In 2013, 30,000 prisoners across the California carceral system utilized hunger strikes as a means of protesting the state’s use of indefinite solitary confinement as well as deplorable sanitation. The hunger strike lasted 60 days and found solidarity with prisoners across the globe struggling for freedom—including in Palestine. Khader Adnan, the revolutionary honored in this mural, resorted to hunger strikes numerous times in the 6 years he spent in administrative detention, speaking out against Israel’s targeting of Palestinian activists and their use of indefinite pre-trial detention. In 2023, Adnan spent 87 days on hunger strike in an Israeli prison to protest cruel treatment he and other prisoners suffered. He was killed by Israeli prison officials on May 2nd, 2023, after being refused medical treatment. 

This mural honors all those martyrs who have put their bodies on the line to topple Israel’s genocidal regime and to deliver liberation to Palestine. Hand in hand, it honors those hunger strikers in California prisons who have risked their lives to fight for their freedom. Through this image, we demonstrate the interconnectedness of these protests, and their shared lineages through and between political revolutionaries behind the walls: from Pelican Bay to Palestine.