Spanish-Palestinian activist Saif Abukeshek, detained by Israel in international waters as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip, began a dry hunger strike this Wednesday and stopped drinking water as a form of protest.
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According to his defense confirmed to EFE, Abukeshek refuses to drink since this morning, adding to the hunger strike he has maintained since Thursday, April 30, along with the also detained Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila.
Abukeshek and Ávila appeared this Wednesday before a court in the Israeli city of Beersheba, which held an appeal hearing on the extension of their police detention decreed yesterday Tuesday by an Israeli judge. During this hearing, in which the court rejected the appeal, Abukeshek informed his lawyers that he has decided to stop drinking water since the morning.
Adalah’s lawyer – his legal team – Moatasem Zidan explained to EFE that during the hearing the lawyers of the two activists again argued that their detention in international waters was illegal, as it contravenes international law and the law of the sea.
The judge, Zidan indicated, rejected these arguments stating that Israel does have the authority to do so, although he did not indicate the reasons why it would hold such authority.
Zidan emphasized that endorsing such detention would give Israeli authorities a “free hand” to detain anyone outside Israeli territory in similar cases, which in his opinion sets a dangerous precedent.
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According to an Adalah statement, their lawyers argued at the hearing that “a legal detention under these circumstances would require a formal extradition” and that “the activists were kidnapped from a ship flying the Italian flag, which places them under Italian jurisdiction.”
“The operation constitutes a clear violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which stipulates that only the flag state can order the detention or seizure of a ship, even for investigative purposes. The Italian government has already condemned the Israeli action for considering it illegal,” they add.
The two activists, who are the only ones taken to Israel out of the 175 captured by the Israeli Army in international waters near Greece – the rest were disembarked on Greek coasts – face an investigation by the Israeli internal intelligence services (Shin Bet) on several charges, some of terrorism.
This is the first time that criminal charges have been brought against detainees from a flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip, who until now had only faced administrative expulsion procedures from Israeli territory.
After the rejection of this Wednesday’s appeal, they will have to appear again on Sunday, May 10 before a judge in the coastal town of Ashkelon (southern Israel), where they remain detained, who will decide whether to extend their detention again or release them.
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