The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) joins the international labor movement and workers around the world in condemning Israel for its illegal, brutal and genocidal blocking of boats carrying humanitarian assistance to war-torn Gaza and its arrest of their crew.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is composed of more than 40 civilian boats that carry around 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists from all over the world. It is an initiative of civil society, not of governments. It brings food, medicines, milk formula and other forms of humanitarian assistance, not guns. There is simply no reason under international law for Israel’s aggression against the flotilla.

We echo the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the biggest grouping of labor centers in the world, and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents more than 16.5 million transport workers globally, in saying that the Global Sumud Flotilla is justified.

We link arms with workers across Italy, led by the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) and the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), who held a general strike last month in support of the flotilla and who are now protesting in the streets in their tens of thousands to condemn Israel’s interception of the flotilla.

We are in complete solidarity with dockworkers across Europe who have refused to board weapons and other military technologies from their continent to Israel’s government. We support health workers, journalists, and humanitarian workers around the world who have spoken out against the killing and brutalization of their colleagues in Gaza and Palestine.

We salute workers who draw from their experience of exploitation and repression in deepening their solidarity with the Palestinian people. We celebrate workers who draw from their experience of fighting through their unions for a better chance in life in affirming the global struggle to end the US-backed Israeli military aggression and genocide against the Palestinians.

CTUHR echoes the ITUC demands in relation to the Global Sumud Flotilla: treating the members of the humanitarian mission with dignity, ensuring their safety and respecting their human rights, and releasing them immediately. We agree with the ITUC that the humanitarian aid carried by the flotilla should be transferred to legitimate humanitarian organizations in Gaza.

We support calls for sanctions against Israel for its actions in Gaza, and for the deployment of an international military force to protect Palestinians. The US, Germany and other countries must stop arming Israel. We support all efforts to stop Israel from committing its genocide in Gaza and to achieve Palestinian liberation.