In an interview with Newsmax on Monday, Ofir Akunis, consul general of Israel in New York, dismissed the aid ship intercepted by Israel over the weekend as looking for "public relations" and not to provide humanitarian help as the activists on board claim.
Israel on Sunday intercepted the vessel piloted by the Freedom Flotilla, a group that includes Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan, which was bound for the Gaza Strip.
The ship, the Madleen, "is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries," Israel's Foreign Ministry wrote in a social media post Monday morning.
"Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen," Freedom Flotilla organizer Huwaida Arraf said in a statement. "This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the [International Court of Justice's] binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza."
Akunis asserted on "Wake Up America" that that the activists behind the aid ship "only want public relations for themselves. That's the whole story about the flotilla because those people there already know that there are tons of humanitarian aid."
He added, "So it's just, you know, words, just empty words."
Akunis said: "My suggestion to those people is to stop with the provocations. That's it. We don't need any provocations."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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