Senator Faruqi joined family, friends, and supporters at Sydney International Airport this morning to welcome home seven of the brave Australian participants on the Global Sumud Flotilla: Neve O\u2019Connor, Sam Woripa Watson, Isla Lamont, Juliet Lamont, Surya McEwen, Zack Schofield, and Anny Mokotow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These Australians were among the hundreds of humanitarians kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. Many participants have reported physical, psychological, and sexual abuse while imprisoned by Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lines attributable to Senator Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Greens and spokesperson for International Aid & Global Justice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was an honour to welcome home to our brave Global Sumud Flotilla participants who have kept our hope alive and who carried with them not just aid, but humanity, love, and a commitment to a free Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe kidnapping, abuse, torture, and violence they were forced to endure at the hands of Israel is depraved, but I can see that their spirits remain unbroken. We are so proud and grateful to all of them and their families. They give so many others the inspiration to keep speaking out for Palestine and holding our own government to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world has been horrified to see the treatment by Israel of civilians on a legal mission to deliver life-saving aid and break the illegal siege of Gaza, just as the world has been horrified by Israel\u2019s genocide, mass murder and starvation of Palestinians over the last two and a half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIsrael was able to abuse and torture Australians so brazenly only because it has been given full cover, impunity and active support by countries like Australia to keep committing and escalating their crimes against Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong should be ashamed for calling Israel a friend and an ally, not only because of the abhorrent abuse of flotilla activists, but because of Israel\u2019s ongoing and brutal occupation, apartheid and genocide of Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is frightening how little the Labor government cares about Palestinian lives or indeed the safety of our own citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf Labor gives a damn about peace, international law or justice, they need to stop shaking hands with the architects of this genocide and they need to stop believing Israel\u2019s lies and propaganda. Instead, they must sanction Israel, end the arms trade and cut ties. Useless words expressing grave concern mean nothing when people in Palestine and Lebanon are being killed every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senator Faruqi joined family, friends, and supporters at Sydney International Airport this morning to welcome home seven of the brave Australian participants on the Global Sumud Flotilla: Neve O\u2019Connor, Sam Woripa Watson, Isla Lamont, Juliet Lamont, Surya McEwen, Zack Schofield, and Anny Mokotow. These Australians were among the hundreds of humanitarians kidnapped and imprisoned by … Continue reading “Greens: Flotilla participants welcomed home in Sydney after allegations of kidnapping, imprisonment and abuse by Israel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39117,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39116\/revisions\/39117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}