South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) stands in solidarity with all those working to bring attention to the illegal abduction, torture, and detention of Global Sumud Flotilla activists Thiago Ávila and Saif Abukeshek by Israeli naval forces. We demand the immediate release of these activists who are being held hostage following an act of piracy.
On 30 April 2026, in international waters more than 500 nautical miles from the Gaza coast, the Israeli Navy seized these two humanitarian activists participating in a mission to challenge the illegal siege of Gaza. The Israeli government has no jurisdiction in international waters. This action constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and a direct assault on the fundamental right to humanitarian solidarity.
Reports from Adalah lawyers and diplomatic sources indicate that both men have been subjected to physical violence, blindfolding, isolation, prolonged stress positions, denial of due process, and unlawful interrogation. This is not exceptional brutality. It is the systematic face of a state that has institutionalised torture and political murder.
As South African Jews, we recognise these methods. We have seen them before.
The abduction of Ávila and Abukeshek cannot be understood in isolation. It is part of a broader apparatus of Israeli state violence that includes the recent legalisation of the death penalty for Palestinians convicted on “terror” charges in military courts, but that exempts Israeli settlers from the same standard. As we stated in April 2026, this legislation is not justice but “state-sponsored political murder,” a page torn directly from South Africa’s apartheid history. Between 1961 and 1989, the apartheid government executed approximately 134 political prisoners under “terrorism” acts and the “common purpose” doctrine. Israel is now constructing the same legal gallows.
Nor can we forget that Israel currently holds over 9,500 Palestinians in custody, including 351 children, more than half without charge or trial. These hostages now face the prospect of state execution in a military court system with a conviction rate exceeding 99%. To grant any state the power to define, prosecute, and execute “terrorists” without universal judicial safeguards is to legalise political liquidation.
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail to break the ongoing siege of Gaza, a catastrophic crime against humanity that has seen Gaza’s captive population forcibly starved and carpet bombed in an ongoing genocide that has shocked the world with its abject brutality and cruelty. It is because of the complacency and complicity of international governments that this action is necessary. We wonder when enough will be enough. Will these governments act now that humanitarian activists in international waters are treated as enemy combatants? Must we remain silent while solidarity is branded terrorism, and are we meant to simply accept the depraved logic that the siege itself is not the crime: Challenging it is?
Our demands
SAJFP therefore demands:
- The immediate and unconditional release of Thiago Ávila and Saif Abukeshek, and all political prisoners held by the Israeli state.
- That the governments of Brazil, Spain, and Sweden, the home or resident states of the detained activists ,act decisively and urgently to secure their release and hold Israel accountable for violations of international law.
- That the South African government recognise that the systematic dismantling of international law by Israel demands full and total sanctions, including the expulsion of Israeli diplomats and accountability for any South Africans serving in or collaborating with the Israeli military regime.
- That the international community impose a comprehensive arms and energy embargo on Israel, as called for by UN experts and human rights organisations worldwide, and cease all diplomatic and economic normalisation with an apartheid state.
- That all people of conscience raise their voices against these crimes. Humanitarian solidarity is not terrorism. Breaking the siege is not a crime. The real crimes are the siege, the genocide, the occupation, and the silence that enables them.
As South African Jews, we carry the weight of a history in which our ancestors were refugees from persecution. We carry the memory of the Nazi Holocaust, a catastrophe that began with the dehumanisation of a people and ended with industrialised murder. We carry the legacy of South African Jews who stood against apartheid, who understood that Jewish safety cannot be purchased with another people’s suffering, who said “Never again” and meant for anyone.
It is in accordance with our deepest ethical commitments as Jews that we stand with the Global Sumud Flotilla, with Saif and Thiago, and with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom, justice, and the right of return.
Free Saif Abukeshek. Free Thiago Ávila. Free all political prisoners. End the siege. End the genocide. Sanction Israel now.
Not in our name. Never again for anyone.