Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support demands the immediate release of our comrade Amrou Ibrahim of Ahrar’s NY/NJ chapter and the at least 250+ flotilla prisoners that were illegally detained by Zionist naval forces today.
On May 13th, five boats of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition launched their humanitarian mission from Greece and eventually met up with 50 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla making it the largest humanitarian flotilla force sailing to Gaza to date.
Now, genocidal Zionist naval forces have boarded and seized at least 36 flotilla vessels in international waters, 250 nautical miles from Gaza’s shoreline. The current whereabouts of hundreds of activists are unknown since the violent interception.
The united flotilla mission never entered Zionist territorial waters, but even if they did illegally cross into these waters to provide humanitarian support to Palestinians in Gaza, we must question the legitimacy of legality under settler-colonial genocide.
Montreal-based Ehab Lotayef, one of the Canadians aboard the flotilla, said the mission’s goal is to serve as an act of civil disobedience against Israel’s continued attacks and blockade against Gaza.
Incarcerated PFLP General-Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat reminds us of the necessity to break the law, stating:
“The prisons and the political prisoners are also an example of the power and necessity of “breaking the law.” The law – the law of the imperialist and the colonizer – is used to steal the rights and resources of our people and also to justify our imprisonment and repression and criminalization. Through the collective “breaking” of the law and its power to define justice and injustice – when people, collectively, confront and “break” the law, not merely as individuals but as a collective power, it loses its claim to legitimacy. Breaking of the law must become the norm, and not the exception – the law of capitalism, imperialism and exploitation.”
Toronto-based harm reduction worker and advocate Norrad Bouzide was also kidnapped during this collective attempt to break the illegal siege on Gaza.
We condemn, in the strongest terms, this detainment and call on all people of conscience to raise their voices for the release of Norrad, Amrou, and the hundreds of other activists putting their bodies and lives on the line to deliver aid to Palestinians facing 19 years of siege and counting.
Free Amrou Ibrahim!
Free All Flotilla Political Prisoners!
Free All Palestinian Prisoners!
