Global Sumud Flotilla: Arab Grassroots Decry Israel’s ‘Piracy’

Day after day, Israel grows more and more audacious in its quest to impose its hegemony not only over the West Asia region, but also over the entire world, violating land, air, and international waters alike.

Hundreds of peaceful international activists aboard over 40 civilian vessels were subjected to a brutal act of piracy on the high seas, just 75 miles away from the Gaza coast. Their boats were loaded with life-saving humanitarian aid for the forcibly-starved two-million-person population in the Gaza Strip.

The activists were kidnapped and the ships were forcibly steered towards Israeli ports. Few governments took any action to prevent the mass abduction from happening. The interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla is a grave crime, which revealed that many Western countries are indifferent to the lives of their citizens when the offender is Israel.

Arab peoples join international mass protests condemning the aggression on GSF

Upon the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) on Wednesday, October 1, thousands of people took to the streets in different continents including in cities across Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia.

The mass demonstrations have expanded and continued for the second day consecutively, with people of more countries expressing their outrage in the streets about the barbaric action of the Israeli occupation against the humanitarian sailors, including in Jordan, Tunisia, Libya and the occupied West Bank.

We chose to sacrifice ourselves, says Tunisian activist

Peoples Dispatch spoke to Khaled Boujemma, a Tunisian human rights activist and a member of the Maghreb branch of the GSF Steering committee, about his reaction to Israel’s attack on the flotilla.

Boujemaa pointed out that their committee first tried to depart from the Libyan territories towards Gaza by land. However, they were prevented from proceeding at gun point by Haftar militias, who sent them back to Tunisia.

It was then that the committee decided to join the GSF’s initiative and sail with them, although it was known from the beginning that no international actors would guarantee the safety of the activists of the flotilla.

Boujemaa himself was not able to participate due to irreparable damage in the ship he was supposed to board, but his friends and comrades joined the GSF aboard other ships.

“We have been aware that the Zionist entity’s terrorism and brutality have no limits, but we chose to sacrifice ourselves,” the Tunisian activist asserted.

He also holds Israel, the United States and all Western and European countries accountable for the aggression on the GSF. He argues that these countries are complicit in Israel’s genocide and deliberate starvation in Gaza through their silence and sometimes active support.

International human rights organizations blamed for allowing Israel to go too far with its crimes

For his part Palestinian political activist, freedom fighter and former prisoner in Israeli jails, Mr. Omar Assaf affirmed that the people of conscience from all over the world who participated in GSF, exerted additional pressure on Israel and the US to end the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“The arrest of those people of conscience by the Israeli authorities on the high seas constitute a flagrant violation of all international norms and conventions, and the international law. Therefore, all countries around the world should bear responsibility for that. Moreover, international human rights organizations are obliged to assume special responsibility in exerting pressure on the Israeli occupation,” Assaf noted.

The Palestinian freedom fighter blamed these organizations for not taking practical measures earlier, which would have deterred the Israeli occupation and stopped its criminal behaviors and genocide in Gaza. Assaf believes that not doing so, encouraged Israel to go too far and launch its aggression on the GSF and its activists.

Assaf called on all the countries over the globe to take the necessary measures to protect GSF activists from the crimes and assaults, which they have already been subjected to at the hands of the Israeli occupation, despite being peaceful activists sailing in international waters.

Palestinian resistance groups condemn the aggression as “an act of piracy and terrorism”

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued statements denouncing the interception of the flotilla and the detention of its activists.

Hamas considered the Israeli attack an “act of piracy and terrorism”, affirming that the violent incident will further ignite the outrage of the peoples around the world.

The movement added that the barbaric assault targeted international solidarity activists, who were on an urgent humanitarian mission to transport emergency aid for the besieged people in the Gaza Strip after having been subjected to genocide and systematic starvation for two years.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement said that the attack is not isolated from other incidents but an extension of recurrent assaults, as it was preceded by Israeli attacks on several ships attempting to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza. The most recent being in July 2025, when Israeli forces attacked the “Handala” and abducted its crew.

The Islamic Jihad stressed that the Israeli occupation’s encroachment and audacity to violate international law would not have happened without the political and military cover, and the unlimited support by the Trump administration. The movement also indicated that the silence of the European governments towards Israel’s crimes is tantamount to complicity.

Ben-Gvir provokes the ire of the entire world by calling GSF activists as terrorists

While millions of people across the planet are already outraged due to the assault on the GSF and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir exasperated their sentiments on Thursday by visiting the Israeli military port of Ashdod and verbally attacking the flotilla’s activists and journalists detained there. A video went viral showing Ben-Givir speaking to the apprehended activists and calling them “terrorists”.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch