05/01/2026
On Wednesday, vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla — carrying civilians from 55 countries and humanitarian aid bound for Gaza — were intercepted in international waters near Crete, hundreds of miles outside Israeli territorial waters, under cover of darkness. This is piracy: The Israeli Navy was an armed aggressor, far outside its jurisdiction, and has taken the crew hostage.
We are urgently asking all CFP members to write and call John’s Members of Congress to denounce his abduction.
In 2023, Israel instituted a total blockade on Gaza, cutting off all life-saving supplies, resulting in unprecedented levels of malnutrition compounding of and compounded by a genocide. The blockade is a core part of Israel’s regime of settler colonial domination by starvation. Even before 2023, Israel has used a policy of caloric control over Gaza, meticulously restricting the number of calories per capita allowed to enter the Strip since 2007.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, of which CFP is a partner, set sail on April 12 to break the siege on Gaza, Palestine. This was the largest humanitarian maritime initiative undertaken to break the siege since the imposition of Israel’s naval blockade in 2007, which has seen thousands of Palestinians live and die under conditions of human-made famine.
The flotilla is an act of lawful civil resistance against the machinery of collective punishment imposed through Israel’s unlawful blockade, designed to undermine Palestinian liberation and self-determination. It has undertaken a protected humanitarian mission.
Now John, and the rest of the crew, have been kidnapped by the Israeli military in international waters for trying to deliver much-needed aid to the people of Gaza.
