{"id":428638,"date":"2025-06-04T13:15:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/04\/rima-hassan-freedom-flotilla-gaza\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:16:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:16:01","slug":"mep-aboard-the-freedom-flotilla-to-gaza-the-left-urges-the-eu-to-protect-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/04\/mep-aboard-the-freedom-flotilla-to-gaza-the-left-urges-the-eu-to-protect-them\/","title":{"rendered":"MEP aboard the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, the Left urges the EU to protect them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is at it again. It\u00a0is aiming for the Gaza Strip.<\/a> A boat of the collective that has been fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people for almost twenty years set sail on Sunday, June 1 from Catania and should see the Middle East coasts by June 7, at the latest<\/strong>. The conditional is a must: the Israeli navy has already stated that it is ready to stop the crew of the Madleen. Among the twelve volunteers are well-known Swedish activist Greta Thunberg<\/strong> and French MEP Rima Hassan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to the tracking system provided by the collective, in the late morning of today (June 4), the vessel was skirting the coast of the island of Crete. Tonight, a drone of the Hellenic Coast Guard was spotted flying over the Madleen, about 40 miles from Greek territorial waters. Just\u00a0a month ago<\/a>, another Flotilla boat was destroyed in international waters off the coast of Malta<\/strong>. The collective immediately attributed the attack, which caused no casualties or injuries, to Israeli drones. In 2010, it went much worse on the Mavi Marmara, on which Israel opened fire\u00a0and on which ten Freedom Flotilla volunteers died.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan together with part of the crew of the Madleen [Photo: Instagram account Rima Hassan]<\/figcaption><\/figure>In light of this,\u00a0the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as early as June 2,\u00a0asked<\/a> that “safe passage be granted” to the humanitarian ship, which\u00a0carries basic necessities for the people of Gaza<\/strong>, including powdered milk, flour, rice, diapers, feminine hygiene products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches and prostheses for children. “Aid is desperately needed for the people of Gaza to forestall annihilation, and this initiative is a symbolic and powerful effort to deliver it.\u00a0Israel should remember that the world is watching closely and refrain from any act of hostility against the Freedom Flotilla Coalition<\/strong> and its passengers,\u201d the Ohchr experts said.<\/p>\n

The collective, and in particular Thunberg and Hassan, are making daily appeals to Western governments<\/strong> “to guarantee safe passage to the Madleen and all humanitarian ships,” to the media “to report this mission with accuracy and integrity,” and to civil society “to refuse to be silent and to act for Gaza.” In the hope that keeping up the attention will put pressure on Israel and ultimately serve as a pass to Gaza. Today, in a post on X, the co-president of the Left Group in the European Parliament, Manon Aubry, <\/strong>addressed the leadership of the European institutions, calling for the security of the humanitarian convoy. “The EU cannot remain silent in the face of threats to the transport of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” said the French MEP from La France Insoumise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rima Hassan during a Press conference on the situation in the Middle East<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The French radical left party led by Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon includes Rima Hassan, the first Palestinian MEP in history<\/strong>, born in 1992 in a refugee camp near Aleppo, Syria, to a Palestinian family expelled during the 1948 Nakba. Arriving in France at\u00a0age ten, Hassan was granted political asylum and French citizenship when she came of age. A lawyer specializing in international law, she has several years of activism behind her. She\u00a0has distinguished herself as one of the voices most critical of Israeli crimes in the Strasbourg courtroom.<\/p>\n

“I am on board the Madleen because silence is not neutrality; it is complicity. The Palestinian people in Gaza are being starved and slaughtered, and the world is watching. This ship is carrying not only aid but also a demand: end the blockade, end the genocide,<\/strong>” Hassan said. In a statement, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition emphasized that this was a “peaceful act of civil resistance” and that the entire crew “is trained in non-violence.” Hassan, on her social channels, explained that the 12 had prepared extensively for all possible scenarios: from the worst, a military attack on the boat, to arrest by Israeli authorities or other “allied” countries that might intercept them before they reach\u00a0Gaza. To the remote possibility that they might actually arrive in the torn shores of the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rima Hassan, elected with La France Insoumise, is on board the Madleen together with Greta Thunberg and 10 other volunteers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on Israel to “refrain from any act of hostility” against the boat carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":428605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712],"tags":[31383,31310,31384],"class_list":["post-428638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-freedom-flotilla-coalition-en","tag-gauze","tag-rima-hassan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428638"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428665,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428638\/revisions\/428665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}