The Global Sumud Flotilla is demanding the New Zealand government intervene to uphold international law, after being intercepted by Israel.

It said 22 boats carrying aid for Gaza were illegally intercepted in international waters near the Greek island of Crete.

New Zealanders Jay O’Connor, Mousa Taher, Julien Blondel, and Sean Janssen were among the 175 people detained.

• READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla Coalition calls for the immediate release of Global Sumud Flotilla organisers
• NZer in flotilla intercepted by Israel has concussion and possible broken rib, says wife
• Former Greek minister slams ‘Western complicity’ over brutal Israeli kidnap of Gaza flotilla leaders
• Israeli forces raid Global Sumud Flotilla boats in international waters
• NZer Rana Hamida reports
• Other Global Sumud Flotilla reports
• Kia Ora Gaza website

O’Connor had received concussion and a possible broken rib, while Blondel was hit in the face, the Global Sumud Flotilla said.

“These citizens are part of a completely legal action onboard vessels that are lawfully exercising navigation rights under article 87 of UNCLOS — to deliver essential aid, open a humanitarian corridor to Gaza, and break the illegal siege on Gaza by the Israeli regime,” it said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry had called organisers “professional provocateurs” and said it would not allow “the breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza”.

Global Sumud Flotilla said that Blondel had assured the team he was “up to be continuing this going forward,” as the rest of the Flotilla continues to sail.

Two other New Zealanders
Two other New Zealanders, Hāhona Ormsby and Samuel Leason, are currently regrouping with the others in Greece.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it understood up to six New Zealanders had been “caught up” in the interception.

It told RNZ on Saturday that it was aware of allegations made about the treatment New Zealanders had faced while in custody.

“Consular officials in Wellington, New Zealand’s Embassies in Rome and Ankara, and New Zealand’s Honorary Consul in Greece have been working throughout the night and over the past few days to gather information, provide advice to families, and support New Zealanders involved,” it said.

“Immediately following the interception of the flotillas on Thursday, the New Zealand government made it clear to Israel that the safety of New Zealanders involved was paramount and that international law must be upheld.

“These and other views were made clear to Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand and by New Zealand’s Ambassador to Israel, stationed in Ankara.”

The ministry added that New Zealand had a long-standing “do not travel” advisory in place for Gaza, explicitly warning against any attempt to enter by sea.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defence minister, are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation. Israel is also on trial for genocide in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by South Africa supported by other countries.

The wife of one of the New Zealanders in the flotilla intercepted by Israel in international waters says he has a concussion and possible broken rib.

Jay O’Connor, Mousa Taher, Julien Blondel and Sean Janssen were among almost 180 people who had disembarked on the Greek island of Crete.

Flotilla organisers said they were illegally abducted after Israel boarded, disabled and destroyed boats in the flotilla headed for Gaza.

• READ MORE: Former Greek minister slams ‘Western complicity’ over brutal Israeli kidnap of Gaza flotilla leaders
• Israeli forces raid Global Sumud Flotilla boats in international waters
• NZer Rana Hamida reports
• Other Global Sumud Flotilla reports
• Kia Ora Gaza website

They said Julien Blondel had taken “several blows to the face” and had been hospitalised along with Jay O’Connor.

The organisers said Blondel had emphasised his commitment to the people of Gaza telling the team that he is “up to be continuing this going forward”.

They also said Sean Janssen and Mousa Taher are now in Turkey waiting for the flotilla to arrive.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry had called organisers “professional provocateurs” and said it would not allow “the breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza”.

31 ‘transferred’ for medical aid
Greece said 31 people of the 176 people who disembarked at a port in Crete were transferred for first aid.

O’Connor’s wife, Chrissy O’Connor, had not yet been able to speak with him.

“I’ve received some messages from him and he sent through a recorded voice message, so I’ve heard his voice and I’ve seen a photo,” she said.

“So that’s a huge relief… so I know some things but still waiting to be able to speak with him properly,” O’Connor added.

“It’s better than not knowing, at least I know he’s off the boat, he’s safe even if he’s a bit roughed up.”

O’Connor said she did not know for sure how her husband was but that he had a concussion and potentially a broken rib.

“That’s just from the brief message I had from him, I don’t know what the outcome of medical assessment was at the moment.”

Jay O’Connor had not yet shared details of how he was injured, his wife said.

‘A lot’ of flotilla activists injured in interception
Two other New Zealanders, Samuel Leason and Hāhona Ormsby evaded capture.

Ormsby, of Ngāti Maniapoto, told RNZ’s Māpuna programme the operation happened very quickly.

“It pretty much happened in a blink of eye,” he said.

“They came in the dark, all of a sudden we heard brief mayday calls go out and then they blocked all our radio communication, our Starlink, so there was no communication between the boats, we could only just see what was going on and then the battleships just rolling in between us,” Ormsby said.

“I know on our boat, we had a big boat come past, a big ship, battleship come past about 150m off our port side, shine a big light on us and then as they shined their lights on other boats that’s when we were able to slip through.”

Ormsby said “a lot” of flotilla activists had been injured in the interception.

He said 30 boats in the flotilla managed to get away and went in different directions.

“It was quite an ordeal,” he said.

“I think there was four big battleships, IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) on RIBs coming up to our boats and a lot of drones and drone activity around us.”

Plan to ‘keep sailing’ for Gaza
Ormsby told RNZ’s Māpuna the intention of those who got away was to keep sailing for Gaza.

“We will leave Crete, make our way to Turkey to pick up some comrades and more boats, and then from there sail on to Gaza.”

Reuters reported two activists, identified as Saif Abu Keshek — a Spanish national of Palestinian origin and Brazilian Thiago Avila had been “detained”.

The Spanish and Brazilian governments issued a joint statement calling Israel’s action blatantly illegal and outside its jurisdiction, Reuters said.

Israel said Abu Keshek was suspected of affiliation with a “terrorist organisation” and Avila of illegal activity, and both would be taken to Israel for questioning.

Chrissy O’Connor said the flotilla was an international humanitarian organisation with citizens from across the world, that included her husband.

“He’s a trained paramedic and an engineer… I think he has wanted to be able to use his skills in a practical way to do something,” she said.

Not among abducted protesters
The New Zealand delegation of Global Sumud Flotilla said Hāhona Ormsby and Samuel Leason were not among those taken to Greece.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) said it was aware of allegations made about treatment while in custody.

It said it did not yet have full details and officials were seeking more information.

“Consular officials in Wellington, New Zealand’s Embassies in Rome and Ankara, and New Zealand’s Honorary Consul in Greece have been working throughout the night and over the past few days to gather information, provide advice to families, and support New Zealanders involved,” it said.

“Immediately following the interception of the flotillas on Thursday, the New Zealand government made it clear to Israel that the safety of New Zealanders involved was paramount and that international law must be upheld,” MFAT added.

“These and other views were made clear to Israel’s Ambassador to New Zealand and by New Zealand’s Ambassador to Israel, stationed in Ankara.”

MFAT said New Zealand had a long-standing ‘do not travel’ advisory in place for Gaza, explicitly warning against any attempt to enter by sea.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defence minister, are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation. Israel is also on trial for genocide in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by South Africa supported by other countries.

Palestinian New Zealander Rana Hamida reports from the Global Sumud Flotilla support team.

One aspect of May’s federal election in Australia has been strangely overlooked: Labor’s win follows a pattern among the main centre-left parties in Europe and comparable countries.

Traditional social democratic and labour-based parties are resurgent, and now hold office (on their own or in coalition) across all of Scandinavia and in Germany, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand.

Where the past decade has been dominated by talk of a crisis of the left, the debate is increasingly shifting to the crisis of the right.

• READ MORE: Labor has a huge health agenda ahead of it. What policies should we expect?
• Other Australian federal elections results

SREcholz ran an uncluttered campaign based on simple promises: a higher minimum wage, stable pensions, more affordable housing and a carbon-neutral economy.

The picture isn’t uniform, of course. Some countries have experienced the de facto demise of their main centre-left party. We might call this the “PASOKification” syndrome, after the sharp loss of support for Greece’s PASOK party, but it extends to other parts of Europe.

The Netherlands’ once-dominant Labour Party was placed sixth in last year’s election, with just 5.7 percent of the vote.

France’s main party of the left, the Socialist Party, was reduced to just 6.4 percent in the first round of the 2017 presidential elections and just 1.7 percent this year, but it sealed a deal to join the French Left’s first broad coalition pact in 20 years.

British Labour, meanwhile, lost the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections. Despite the toxicity that surrounds the Conservative government, Labour leader Keir Starmer remains unpopular and unlikely to win the next election.

In Belgium and Italy, the Left’s situation is less bleak, though its main parties are far from hegemonic. In the highly fragmented Belgian system, the Flemish and Walloon socialist parties are part of the seven-party (yes, seven!) “Vivaldi coalition”.

Italy’s Democratic Party is part of the current Draghi-led national unity government, and in more recent times has held the prime ministership.

Outside Europe, the new “pink tide” in South America has seen, for example, 35-year-old Gabriel Boric win Chile’s presidential election.

Scholz ran an uncluttered campaign based on simple promises: a higher minimum wage, stable pensions, more affordable housing and a carbon-neutral economy.

Great to see New Zealand PM @jacindaardern again at @The_ANZLF in Sydney.

We will work with businesses and governments across the Tasman to drive better paying jobs and to support free and open trade.

Working together, we can seize opportunities for our mutual benefit. pic.twitter.com/cgIn2fUXpv

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 7, 2022

Why the bounce back?
Some common factors help us understand the partial return of the left.

First, the vote share of the two main centre-right and centre-left parties has declined in most of these countries, yet the centre-left can still assemble a majority where the electoral system enables it.

Australian Labor’s record low primary vote of 32.6 percent is part of that trend, with centre-left parties in Norway, Sweden and Spain now capturing between 25 percent and 30 percent of the vote. And even when parties win larger vote shares (as in Portugal), they have usually needed coalition partners.

Nevertheless, centre-left parties remain a fixture in many party systems, and have found ways of getting back into office.

Second, the reinvigorated centre-left parties — including Anthony Albanese’s Labor — share common policy positions. We might sum them up as a “back to basics” strategy, with a clear focus on improved wages and conditions, job security and reinvigorated public institutions.

Albanese’s win has parallels with the victory of Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat–led “rainbow coalition” in Germany. As one commentator described it:

Scholz ran an uncluttered campaign based on simple promises: a higher minimum wage, stable pensions, more affordable housing and a carbon-neutral economy.

Social democrats have sought to (mildly) rebuild public institutions. The Danish Social Democrats have pledged to increase public and welfare spending by 0.8 percent per year for five years.

Jacinda Ardern’s NZ Labour government has increased the minimum wage. Antonio Costa’s recent majority government in Portugal was built on a coalition united in seeking to reverse the austerity measures that followed the eurozone crisis.

Labor’s win follows a pattern of centre-left parties holding office in a number of countries.

The pandemic has also helped fuel a resurgence of social democratic parties, and @RobManwaring says some factors could help explain this bounce back. @Flinders https://t.co/ij414vCGsL

— The Conversation (@ConversationEDU) July 10, 2022

Common features …
This “new” minimalist social democracy has several entwined elements. First, the incoming governments have captured a mood, amplified by the pandemic, that centre-right governments have neglected key public goods.

Second, these centre-left governments have turned away from “third way” policies associated with leaders like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. As catalogued here, centre-left parties have turned leftwards since the 1990s and 2000s.

Many of their party manifestos have a renewed focus on tackling inequality and increasing welfare spending.

Third, the centre-left parties have been gradually “greening”. Many are seeking to make renewables part of their reinvigorated industry and manufacturing agendas.

As Albanese and his colleagues know, this is a delicate balancing act, aimed at protecting employees in fossil-fuel-intensive industries while setting out modest climate targets. This “balance” seems to be hitting the electoral sweet spot by capturing public demand for action while allaying fears about the speed of transition — even if the targets fail to keep up with the science.

The final element is the longstanding “feminisation” of the parties. Many are reaping the rewards of the struggles by feminist MPs, allies and members to improve representation.

It’s no coincidence that four of Scandinavia’s five current centre-left prime ministers are female. The centre-left parties look modern and representative, and most have strong gender policies, especially on issues like the gender pay gap.

… And one significance difference
It’s worth noting a key difference between Australian Labor and its resurgent counterparts. Many centre-left parties in Europe have made strong pledges to invest in their welfare states — in part to see off the welfare chauvinism of radical right challengers.

In New Zealand, the Ardern government has announced a new unemployment insurance scheme.

The dynamics seem different in Australia, and Labor apparently sees little electoral value in shifting from its “modest” welfare agenda.

One important lesson for Labor is that in almost all the cases internationally, the centre-left has had to learn to govern in partnership with other key players.

This will be a pressing issue for Albanese as he deals with a record crossbench in both houses. It could even determine how long Australia’s centre-left party governs.

Dr Rob Manwaring is associate professor, Politics and Public Policy, Flinders University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.