On Thursday, the Israeli navy intercepted 22 boats that were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla sailing toward Gaza. After 24 hours of detention for more than 170 members of the flotilla, they were allowed to disembark on the island of Crete. Two activists — Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek — remain in the custody of the Israeli Prison Service, the same agency that controls Israeli prisons where hundreds of Palestinians are subjected to countless abuses over years, without trial.

The two men have been transferred to a court in Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv. The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel was able to send lawyers to meet with them. The human rights organization confirmed that they had suffered injuries as a result of beatings, and were being held in solitary confinement.

Per Haaretz, Israel is accusing Ávila, a Brazilian national, and Abu Keshek, a Spanish and Swedish national of Palestinian origin, of “aiding the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership in a terrorist organization and provision of services to it, and transfer of property to a terrorist organization.

Specifically, the activists are accused of working with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, an organization sanctioned by the United States and described as a “front for Hamas” by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Zionist state is making these accusations without evidence — both that Ávila and Abu Kashek are members of the organization, and that the organization is a terrorist group. The two men have long-standing, internationally recognized track records as defenders of the Palestinian cause; that is why both were also coordinators of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Both activists were sailing in international waters near Greece  along with hundreds of others when they were intercepted and detained by the Israeli military. After 24 hours of detention for more than 170 members of the flotilla, they were allowed to disembark on the island of Crete, except for Thiago and Saif, who were abducted and taken to Israel. Both Greece and the European Union looked the other way, allowing the violation of both their own laws and international law.

Although the governments of both Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement denouncing this illegal detention, they have yet to take any measures commensurate with the gravity of the situation. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs will not address the issue in parliament until next Thursday.

These are times when, after two years of Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza, repression in the West Bank, and, now, bombings and occupation of southern Lebanon, Israel finds itself internationally isolated. Meanwhile, its major partner, the United States, is in a growing crisis of hegemony as it fails to defeat Iran militarily. Because of this weakness, the Trump administration is attempting to economically strangle Iran by blocking ships from crossing the Strait of Hormuz.

Against this backdrop, the Zionist state is becoming increasingly brutal in its violence. We must counter this with the largest international mobilization, reviving and expanding the pro-Palestine movement that emerged against the genocide, now to demand the release of Ávila and Abu Keshek.

The post Mobilize to Demand the Release of Flotilla Activists Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek from Israeli Detention appeared first on Left Voice.

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