Greta Thunberg Joins Call to Release Hunger-Striking Gaza Flotilla Activists

High-profile political leaders, artists, and activists – including Greta Thunberg – have called for the immediate release of four pro-Palestine organisers who are on hunger strike in a Tunisian jail, including one “on the brink of death”. 

Wael Naouar was rushed to hospital yesterday after spending 40 days on hunger strike, according to the Gaza Sumud Flotilla (GSF), an organisation that looks to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver emergency aid by sea.

Alongside Thunberg, South African politician Zwelivelile Mandela, who is Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has also signed an open letter urging the Tunisian government to free Naouar and his three co-defendants. Both Thunberg and Mandela joined the same aid flotilla as Naouar last year.  

Other signatories to the letter include Irish rap group Kneecap and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham. They are also calling for “urgent medical care” for the detained men.

The four were arrested in March after being accused of misusing funds raised for the organisation. He launched his hunger strike at Mornaguia prison to protest his detention and that of his fellow activists – Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri and Nabil Channoufi, who began their strikes around two weeks ago. 

Naouar is in a semi-comatose state, GSF said, adding that the Tunisian authorities have sought to impose an information blackout to prevent updates about his condition. Naouar’s father said he was close to death after visiting him earlier this week. 

Prison authorities have failed to respond to requests for information on his condition, Al Jazeera reported. 

GSF said in a statement: “This worrying silence and the total refusal to provide information to his family or legal team raise serious concerns for his safety. We hold the President of the Republic, the General Directorate of Prisons and Rehabilitation, and the Ministry of Justice fully responsible for his life and for any harm that may befall him.”

“A man has been on hunger strike for more than a month in a Tunisian prison because he refuses to accept that solidarity with Palestine is a crime. His heart could stop at any moment,” the letter reads. “Tunisia has long stood with the Palestinian people and resisted colonialism. We ask its government to remember that history, and to act before another prisoner pays with his life.”

Since Tunisian president Kais Saied took office in 2021, the country has been on a “slide back into authoritarianism”, with political activists frequently detained without charge, Human Rights Watch said earlier this month.