Visitors to the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on the morning of April 30th found a report relating to the Israeli navy’s earlier interception of some of the vessels participating in the latest flotilla agitprop.
As has been the case in so much of the BBC’s past coverage of similar stunts, that report – “Israel intercepts Gaza flotilla near Crete and detains 175 activists” by David Gritten – puts wind in the sails of assorted claims and narratives but fails to provide readers with facts essential for full understanding of the story.
Gritten begins his report by uncritically quoting the organisers of the flotilla. [emphasis added]
“Pro-Palestinian activists say 22 boats from a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza have been intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near the Greek island of Crete.
The organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) denounced the action as “piracy“, saying those on board were seized unlawfully more than 965km (600 miles) from Gaza, which is under an Israeli naval blockade.”
BBC audiences are not provided with any information whatsoever in the BBC’s own words about the identities of “the organisers”, their links to Hamas or their funding. Gritten does, however, find it appropriate promote more false narratives in the form of unqualified quotes from an “activist” and former Apple employee.
“Tariq Ra’ouf, a Palestinian-American writer and activist, told BBC News Arabic he was on one of the flotilla’s support vessels in Greek waters.
“The spirits on board are high, we are determined to keep doing what we can to support the ending of Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza,” he said.
“I am feeling shocked and dismayed at the impunity of Israel’s actions, and how they have managed to break international law repeatedly but most especially this far away from Gaza.””
Gritten does not inform his readers that that the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip – in place since 2009 – was deemed legal by a UN panel of inquiry in 2011. Neither does he clarify that stopping vessels attempting to breach a blockade is not a breach of “international law”.
He continues with more uncritical and context-free promotion of narratives:
“According to the GSF, the latest flotilla’s objectives are to “challenge Israel’s illegal blockade, advance the opening of a permanent humanitarian corridor, and intensify coordinated international pressure on governments and corporations complicit in its enforcement”.”
In what appears to be an attempt to support that latter talking point, he goes on to promote claims from a UN official and recycles the long-redundant “famine” story. Notably, Gritten has nothing to tell BBC audiences about how much “aid” the latest flotilla was supposedly carrying or why the organisers did not simply request to transfer any goods they wished to donate to the Gaza Strip via the port of Ashdod.
“Earlier this week, a senior UN official warned that the situation in Gaza was steadily worsening, with the territory’s 2.1 million population “facing ongoing and deadly Israeli strikes and dire humanitarian conditions”.
“While some improvements in access and aid delivery have been observed in recent weeks, unpredictable access, limited operational crossings, and restrictions on critical humanitarian items termed as ‘dual use’ by Israel continue to constrain UN response,” UN Assistant Secretary General Khaled Khiari told the Security Council.
“Food security remains a challenge, while essential services, particularly water, sanitation, and health, are again on the brink of collapse,” he added.
Last August, experts from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed there was a famine in Gaza City.
In December, they said there had been improvements in nutrition and food supplies following a ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas in October as part of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, but that 100,000 people were still experiencing catastrophic conditions. That figure was projected to decrease to 1,900 by mid-April.”
Although Gritten’s report was updated five times in the half-day following its initial publication, the amendments did not include relevant statements put out by the Board of Peace or the US State Department.
The same narratives – including the “famine” trope – appear in another report published on the same day under the headline “Israel releases all but two activists in Greece after intercepting Gaza aid flotilla” which is credited to Ella Kipling. Readers of that report are told that:
“All the detained activists have disembarked in Crete, apart from two men who are being brought to Israel “for questioning”, according to the Israeli government.
Israel’s foreign ministry said that one of the men, Saif Abu Keshek, was “suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organisation” and the other, Thiago Ávila, was “suspected of illegal activity”. Both men remain in Israeli custody.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) called for the immediate release of Abu Keshek and Ávila. The group said: “We demand that all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees.”
It confirmed that all other members of the captured flotilla boats had been released on the Greek island of Crete.”
BBC audiences are not informed that (as the corporation has itself previously reported) Brazilian Thiago Avila is a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition steering committee who has previously participated in similar stunts and who took a trip to Beirut for the funeral of Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and a meet up with PFLP plane hijacker Leila Khaled in 2025.
Neither are readers told that both he and Saif Abu Keshek (also Keshk or Abukeshek) are involved with the Hamas-linked, Israel and US designated “Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad” (PCPA). According to Hamas documents seized in the Gaza Strip, Abu Keshek is also the CEO of Cyber Neptune, a front company in Spain that owns dozens of the ships participating in the “Sumud” flotilla. Abu Keshek also heads an organisation that last year organised a “Global March to Gaza” which was stopped by the Egyptian authorities.
While the BBC’s article does not state Abu Keshek’s nationality, he is described in several media reports as an approximately 45-year-old Spanish citizen of Palestinian origin who was born in Nablus (Schem). A 2005 project by a photojournalist based in Spain included the following:
In August 2006 the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) published a report about a demonstration in Bil’in in which it claimed that a member of its staff had suffered injuries:
“Saif Abu Keshek the Palestinian Coordinator living in Spain was beaten with a baton and shot with 3 rubber bullets in the back and one in the leg.”
NGO Monitor’s report on the ISM notes that:
“In a 2003 interview on the ISM-London website, Saif Abu Keshek, ISM’s Nablus coordinator at the time, said: “we recognise the right of the Palestinians to choose their way of resistance. To join our way of resistance or to choose armed struggle.””
In other words, Saif Abu Keshek appears to have a decades-long record of anti-Israel activism but neither that nor Thiago Avila’s terror cheerleading is given even a passing mention in the BBC’s reporting, despite the obvious relevance to the story it purports to cover. Instead, BBC audiences find that once again, the corporation has prioritised narratives over facts in its reporting on this latest flotilla agitprop.
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