This is the email I received 2 hrs ago but only just seen. Please, if you can, share this with others, tune in tonight and call our government out on Monday. If our govt won’t stand up for Palestinians it should stand up for Australians. (Bolding in the text is mine)
Six Australian humanitarian volunteers have just been released this morning in Crete after being held on an Israeli prison ship for two days.
But instead of relief, we were horrified.
Three of our crew, Ethan, Zack and Neve have been beaten and tortured so much they had to be taken to hospital immediately, while the other three, Bianca, Surya and Cameron also reported violence while held hostage including being “kneed in the face”.
2 leaders of the flotilla movement, Saif from Spain and Thiago from Brazil, are being kidnapped to Israeli prison. This is the same barbarity we have witnessed from Israel not just over the past 2 and a half years of genocide but over the last 80 years of occupation, dispossession and colonial violence in Palestine.
To our MPs who have not spoken up against a genocide for which Australia is actively providing financial, political and logistical support; who did not speak up when Australian citizens were taken hostage at gunpoint on Thursday; who are not speaking up now when they are beaten and tortured at the hands of a foreign military:
Where is your red line?
In response to the horrific violence and silence from our politicians, the Australian delegation of Global Sumud Flotilla are calling a National Day of Action on Monday May 4th for Sumud and Gaza to demand that the Australian Government and our politicians:
- Issue immediate and public condemnation of Israel for illegally kidnapping and torturing Australian citizens;
- Put an end to Australia’s complicity in the genocide in Palestine, and to support all efforts to deliver life-saving aid to Gaza; and
- Call for the immediate release of Thiago and Saif.
The silence from our politicians and the Australian government is deafening. It is the bare minimum expectation that our representatives and governments speak up for their constituents and citizens when a foreign state illegally detains and beats them, in international waters. It is not a crime to sail in the mediterranean sea. It is not a crime to attempt to bring aid to starving people.
Blocking aid is. Taking people hostage is. Committing a genocide is. Let Palestinians live, let aid flow, Australia out of Palestine.
Join us tonight at 6pm AEST/5:30pm ACST/4pm AWST to hear latest updates, get tips on organising your action and start planning.
Subhi for the Australian Delegation of Global Sumud Flotilla
Got your first name in there again arbilp3.
I don’t know how else to do the link.
EDIT: Ok, I think it’s ok now. Apologies, I overlooked the name bit. I was shocked by the news.
You can usually remove everything from the question mark onwards. I.e. https://actionnetwork.org/events/org-call-doa-for-sumud/
Well, generally they’d have a public version of the same thing on their website. I think last time this happened the public version was a better link in the end as well.
But its also up to you. If you don’t mind it, then its not really my business and I’ll stop mentioning it. :)
Where is your red line?
This is literally all self-inflicted? You got in your boats, you went over to a war zone, you ignored requests to turn around, and now you’re crying?
The silence from our politicians and the Australian government is deafening
You forgot to include the other 99% of Australians who don’t care about your little crusade either 🌈
They most certainly were not in a war zone. The flotilla was in international waters off Greece. Nowhere near Israel. Jumping a ship in international waters is an act of piracy and criminality as is taking hostages and beating them. I can bet you that if a humanitarian convoy were to be intercepted and people brutalised on the way to Ukraine by Russia, there would be an uproar. If we don’t care how other humans are treated, even our own citizens, then we are a sick and alienated society.
if a humanitarian convoy were to be intercepted and people brutalised on the way to Ukraine by Russia, there would be an uproar
You mean they would be thrown in a gulag and we would not hear from them again yes?
I would tell them there is a better way to provide support, simply donate in Euro’s or UAH at https://weaponstoukraine.com/en/filtr-campaign/vsechny-kampane or https://savelife.in.ua/en/
I said there would be an uproar and I meant internationally.
Here’s a report on the interception of the flotilla from the Irish Public Broadcaster. People do care and the rest of the flotilla continues forward. In the video a GP is interviewed who is the sister of the Irish President and is on the flotilla still making its way towards Palestine. We have not heard the end of this matter.
