French opposition leader calls on Macron to expel Israeli envoy
Mathilde Panot, deputy leader of the France Unbowed party, has urged the French president to expel Israel’s ambassador to Paris, Joshua Zarka, following Israel’s seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Panot, speaking on French RTL Radio, said: “This morning, I officially request the president [Emmanuel Macron] to expel Israel’s ambassador to France.
“It is unacceptable that a representative of a state that has illegally hijacked a legitimate mission to break the blockade three times is allowed to remain in our territory any longer.”
Diplomatic relations with Israel should be severed, Panot said, expressing her satisfaction with Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s decision to expel Israel’s diplomats from his country.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, en route to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, approached the enclave’s waters on October 1 before being intercepted and stopped by Israel.
Israel’s Ben-Gvir urges for flotilla activists to be jailed rather than deported
Israel’s far-right national security minister has said deporting activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla is a mistake, arguing they should instead be jailed for several months.
“I think they must be kept here for a few months in an Israeli prison, so that they get used to the smell of the terrorist wing,” said Ben-Gvir in a post on X.
He said that by simply returning them to their countries, Israel’s PM Netanyahu is encouraging the activists to “to return time and time again”.
Earlier, as we reported, Ben-Gvir appeared on video berating the detained flotilla passengers, calling them “terrorists” as they sat on the ground of what appears to be Israel’s Ashdod port.
Greece to lodge diplomatic protest over Ben-Gvir’s remarks, local media says
Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been angered by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s remarks regarding flotilla activists, local media is reporting.
Ben-Gvir called Global Sumud Flotilla activists “terrorists” when he entered a detention centre yesterday.
News site To Vima, citing the Greek-language site In, said the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs may formally summon the Israeli ambassador to lodge a formal protest as Greek authorities are meanwhile “additionally considering dispatching a military transport plane to Israel to repatriate Greek citizens who were among the flotilla participants”.
Earlier today, four Greek opposition parties released a joint statement condemning Israel’s handling of the flotilla, To Vima said. Twenty-seven Greek nationals participated.
Flotilla organisers slam Israeli disinformation around aid for Gaza
The Global Sumud Flotilla has rejected as “obscene” the Israeli government’s false claims that the Gaza-bound vessels were not carrying aid to Palestinians in the starved enclave.
“The boats were meticulously documented, loaded with medical supplies, food, and other life-saving goods for people in Gaza being systematically starved by Israel,” the group said in a statement.
It added that “Israel’s disinformation is not new”.
“This is the same regime that claimed it was not bombing hospitals, not starving Palestinians, not obstructing convoys, not executing civilians and aid workers, not burying 15 paramedics and their ambulances in a shallow grave. Every one of those lies has been exposed,” the flotilla organisers said.
Israel always lies..
