Aid boat bound for Gaza was seized by Israel, but crew member still considers trip a win

Dr. Baptiste André's shirt was still grimy when he walked out of the arrivals level at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to a flurry of cameras, microphones and questions from journalists.
The French native was one of 11 crew members on the Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and among the three — including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — who signed deportation papers after the boat was seized by the Israeli navy on Monday before it could reach the Gaza Strip. (A fourth person, a journalist, also signed the papers.)
The coalition aims to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid. Most of the enclave's 2.1 million people have been displaced by war, and malnutrition is widespread, the United Nations says. Israel has dismissed the aid boat as a publicity stunt.
During a 20-minute impromptu news conference on Wednesday, André became visibly emotional as he referred to the courage of some of his colleagues in an Israeli jail who refused to sign deportation papers — something he said he felt he had to sign for personal and professional reasons.
André said the document he signed contained allegations that he had entered Israel illegally — a charge that is false, he said, because the boat was in international waters.
By the time the Madleen, a charity vessel, was boarded and seized by Israeli naval forces in the Mediterranean, André said, the crew felt a sense of disappointment. "We were able to make 90 per cent of our route, but we were not able to dock on the shores of Gaza," he told CBC News.
"The feeling onboard in the beginning was one of joy after many weeks of preparation," he said. "A lot of joy, but a lot of stress as well."
'Fear was very present'
André, who served as the onboard medic, and the crew began their journey on June 1, sailing from southern Italy with a boatload of humanitarian aid. The Madleen was destined to dock in Gaza, where the crew planned to distribute the aid to Palestinians, but its journey ended 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres) from the coast of Gaza.
It was about 3 a.m. local time on Monday, André said, when the crew was surrounded by Israeli drones before dozens of soldiers arrived and boarded the boat.
Each crew member had specific duties, and André said his were to make sure everyone was wearing their life-jackets; to collect cellphones and throw them in the water; and to collect kitchen knives that were used to make meals, put them in a box and throw it overboard.
He was also responsible for keeping grab bags that contained the crew's passports, bottles of water, medication and some food.
Controls of the Madleen were taken over by the Israelis, and the crew was brought to Ashdod, a city in Israel on the Mediterranean coast, "against their will," André said.
"The feeling onboard in that moment was one of fear, even though we had prepared with daily training to be able to manage all scenarios in the best possible way. But despite that, fear was very present."
Most crew members have been deported
Despite not making it to their destination, André said he still considers the expedition a "success," as the crew brought attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
"This mission was framed as a movement of solidarity — we played our part in it," he said.
Israel began a military campaign in Gaza after it was attacked by Hamas-led militants, who killed some 1,200 people and took about 251 hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli authorities say. Since then, nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health authorities in Gaza, and much of the densely populated strip has been flattened.
The Israeli government said on Thursday that six other crew members of the Madleen were released and taken to Ben Gurion Airport for flights to their home countries.
Lawyers with Adalah, a Palestinian-run legal centre in Israel, said crew members were subjected to "mistreatment, punitive measures, and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement."
Israeli authorities declined to comment on their treatment. The government said it treats detainees in a lawful manner and investigates any allegations of abuse.
The six who were released included Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament whom Israel had previously barred from entering Israel and the Palestinian territories, citing her support for boycotts of the country.
The last two activists are expected to be deported on Friday, according to Adalah.
WATCH | Canadian couple plans to take part in global march to Gaza:
A Windsor couple preparing to join global march to Gaza border to protest war
7 days ago
Duration 3:03
A Windsor Ont., couple is preparing to make the journey to the Middle East to join a peaceful global protest to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. CBC's Katerina Georgieva reports.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

National Post

5 hours ago

• National Post

Barbara Kay: Canada needs to have a serious talk about the Muslim Brotherhood

Article content Nevertheless, investigations carried out elsewhere are available to us. For example, in 2021 a European Parliament committee produced an in-depth analysis of Muslim Brotherhood activity in Europe. More recently, a classified French report the group's plan to take over Europe was leaked to France's Le Figaro; writing on the subject, the Free Press's Simone Rodan-Benzaquen observed, 'The Brotherhood operates as a political project. Its goal is not sudden revolution, but gradual transformation.… And it is not coming just for France. It is coming for all of the West.' Article content The U.S. has known all about the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology since a damning 1991 memorandum by the group detailing its Islamist aims and methods surfaced in the next decade during the Hamas-centric Holy Land Foundation trial. Before the Trump era, a cone of silence, similar to Canada's, had been placed over it. (Barack Obama naively believed he could make the Brotherhood an ally.) Article content In 2017, Congress held a hearing on whether the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization, but a proposal to criminalize it failed to materialize due to divisions in Trump's first administration. Now, lawmakers are trying again: early this month, a new bill was introduced to Congress with promising bicameral support. Article content Unfortunately, the chances of Canada's present government following suit — or even committing to a Europe-style investigation — are nugatory to nil. Article content My certainty springs from the concerning fact that on June 6, in Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney chose MAC as his audience for a multiculturalism-themed Eid al-Adha address. A George Washington University report by the school's Program on Extremism found that MAC proudly self-identifies as a Muslim Brotherhood legacy group. The Brotherhood also hosts foreign speakers whose discourse features antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia. Article content At his address, Carney equated MAC values with Canadian values. Backlash ensued; more than one observer noted that MAC had been investigated by the Canada Revenue Agency which, in a 2021 audit document, alleged that some MAC directors and employees were involved in 'an apparent Hamas support network.' Article content It's one thing for woke, virtue-signalling global marchers to be shrouded in ignorance. We can mock their credulity. The same appearance of ignorance is inexcusable in a nation's leader. Was Carney deliberately messaging acceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood's claim for social inclusion under the aegis of multiculturalism? If so, that too is inexcusable, but also makes no sense. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has, like the Brotherhood, spawned numerous terrorist offshoots — Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — was (finally) designated by Canada as a terrorist entity in 2024. Yet there is precious little daylight between the triumphalist end games of both IRGC and the Muslim Brotherhood. Article content A saving grace in the era of Soviet-sponsored infiltration of the West was our freedom to educate ourselves about communism's dangers without being accused of 'Marxophobia.' It's past time we had that same freedom to hold a 'national level discussion' on the Muslim Brotherhood. Article content

CBC

a day ago

• CBC

This activist spent 4 gruelling days in Israeli custody, but says he'll try again to bring aid to Gaza

After four days in Israeli detention, Thiago Avila was relieved to be back in Brazil. He'd been taken into custody, along with 11 others, and spent two days in solitary confinement, after they'd tried to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza by sea. Their vessel, the Madleen, was intercepted leading to what he describes as a gruelling stay marked by inhumane treatment and a brief hunger strike. And yet, he told CBC News from Sao Paulo, he chose to be detained rather than sign documents admitting to what he considered a false accusation — that they had tried to enter Israel illegally. Some 20 hours after the vessel was intercepted, Avila, 37, says they were taken to shore and crammed into small police vehicles. He says they had not been given access to a bathroom and that one crew member urinated in the police car. "It was a very degrading [situation]," he said. Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment on Avila's time in jail. They were taken to an immigration facility, he says, where former officers of the Israel Defence Forces demanded he and the others — noted climate activist was Greta Thunberg among them — watch videos of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel, which sparked the latter's war in Gaza, and a humanitarian crisis therein. He says they refused — unless the officer they were speaking to would watch videos of what is taking place in Gaza. "I said 'If you don't watch the video of the genocide that you're committing, we don't want to watch the video that you are using to manufacture consent for your genocide,'" he said. The official refused, and the crew were not made to view the videos. He says he was asked, again, by an immigration agent, to sign documents that said he'd entered Israel illegally. He would have been deported and banned from the country for 100 years if he signed. He again refused. Avila says the boat was in international waters when it was intercepted. But the group agreed that some of them should sign so they could go out and tell the Madleen's story. "We didn't want to have no other voice telling the truth about what happened," he said. Four signed and were freed. The others were taken to Israel's Givon Prison and placed in separate cells. Avila says the conditions were terrible — little to no access to water, which was darkly coloured; bed bugs that he says led to Scabies; and psychological torment by sleep depravation. "They would come every hour or so just to make noise, make everyone get up [and] not be able to sleep," he said. Avila says he was singled out for solitary confinement because he was one of the organizers of the mission and because he'd gone on a hunger and thirst strike. He says officers told him that he'd be disciplined and offered him food on multiple occasions — bread, hummus and rice. Avila says he told them: "Since you're... denying food to more than two million people in Gaza, how can I accept your food and water?" For months now, aid has all but trickled into Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was broken in March. But the enclave has been blockaded for years, inspiring missions like the Madleen's bring aid to Gaza. Since 2008, only five boats have been able to make it the strip and sail back successfully. Avila says his solitary cell was was infested with rats and cockroaches. He says officers became more violent with him, pushing him around and threatening to take him to Gaza and put him in the notorious Sde Teiman jail. And yet, on June 12, Avila was released and put on a flight back to Brazil, to reunite with his wife and daughter. He says he's already signed up for the next mission to Gaza. Before leaving, he told an Israeli official that they would see each other again "very soon." "We continue to have new missions and will not stop until Palestine is free."

CTV News

2 days ago

• CTV News

Big-name porn sites back online in France after age check row

The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS PARIS, France -- Major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were back online in France Friday after a court suspended a decision requiring pornographic platforms based in the EU to verify users' ages. France has gradually introduced requirements this year for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details such as a credit card or ID document. The aim is to prevent minors from accessing pornography. But the Paris administrative tribunal on Monday suspended a government decree while investigating whether it was compatible with EU legislation. The French government has shared its intention to appeal to the Council of State, the country's highest administrative court. The three platforms' owner, Aylo, said the decree's suspension was an 'opportunity to reconsider more efficient approaches' to age verification. Aylo, based in Cyprus, had made its websites unavailable in France in early June as a protest against the French decree. Failure to comply could have lead to sanctions including fines or the blocking of the websites. Aylo argued that this was an ineffective mechanism that exposed people's data to bad actors, hacks or leaks. 'Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users,' the company said in a message displayed on the sites' homepages earlier this month. About 40 percent of children in France access to porn sites every month, according to a 2024 study by France's Arcom audiovisual watchdog. In a bid to preserve privacy, the government decree also required operators to offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would prevent the platforms from seeing users' identifying information. Aylo, which reports seven million visitors in France daily across its various platforms, has called instead for governments to require makers of operating systems such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to verify users' ages at the level of individual devices. The platform also argues that the French law 'diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations' and fails to moderate videos for issues such as the age and consent of performers. Other countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany also enforce age-related access restrictions to adult websites.