Eight of the Twelve Protected Activists who were aboard the Madleen, the ship intercepted by the Israeli army last Monday, appeared this last night for about five hours in front of the Court of Review of Detentions of Israel, at the Ramla detention Center, near Tel Aviv, as confirmed.
Through a statement, the legal team of the Fleeta de la Libertad regretted that “Israel is treating the 12 people as if they had entered the country illegally, despite having been arrested by force in international waters and transferred to Israeli territory against their will.”
Similarly, the legal team emphasized that “the State (Israeli) lacks legal authority to stop or deport them. Activists must be released immediately, they should be allowed to embark, deliver help to Gaza and return to their countries of origin.”
Eight of the 12 activists denied earlier yesterday to sign the document that processed their voluntary deportation and entered the prison of the city of Ramla so that the judge decides his possible expulsion from the country, while another four already left Israel.
Among the crew still detained are the MEP Francopalestina Rima Hassan, of the leftist La France Insumisa (LFI), Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi and Reva Viard; Dutch Mark Van Rennes; the Turk Suayb Ordu; The Brazilian Thiago Avila and the German Yasemin Care.
As explained to Efe Loubna Tuma, Israeli lawyer of the legal team of the flotilla, the four people who accepted their immediate deportation were, which flew from Tel Aviv to France; The Spanish activist, who was transferred to Barcelona on another flight, as well as the French Omar Faiad (journalist) and Baptiste Andre (activist).
The Court of Review of Immigration arrests analyzes the allegations of its defense, which considers that they did not enter Israeli territory, so they cannot be intercepted or arrested and according to Tuma, it is possible that “the judge will say that they must be deported.”
The humanitarian organization added that the Israeli authorities informed on Monday the activists who had imposed a prohibition of entry to the country of “100 years.”
The gesture of Brazilian Thiago Ávila
According to the Fleeta de la Libertad, the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, one of the captive activists “is on hunger and water strike since yesterday”, and others have denounced “unhealthy conditions” under custody of Israel’s penitentiary services, because it is under “bedroom infestations and access only to non -potable running water.”
The State asked the Court to keep activists in custody until deportation, according to the legal team, added that, according to the Law of Entrance to Israel, “people with deportation orders will remain detained for 72 hours before being expelled by force, unless they accept to leave before.”
The Fleeta de la Libertad, aboard the Madleen ship, was heading to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid with the aim of breaking the blockade imposed by Israel to the access of basic goods (such as food, food or fuel) to the enclave.
On March 2, Israel launched a total blockade at the entrance of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which ended on May 19 with the entrance of some trucks loaded, mostly, with flour and other foods.
However, international organizations denounce that the help that has accessed Gaza since then is very insufficient to supply a population of 2.1 million people who had submitted to food deprivation almost three months.
