Tunisia_ Participants in the march agreed that the crackdown on activists of the “Freedom Flotilla” represented a targeting of civil work and support for normalization policies, stressing the need to continue pressure for the release of the release of detains and to protect freedom of expression and the struggle for Palestine.

The “Against Repression and the Criminalization of Civil Work” campaign called for broad participation in the peaceful march organized on Sunday evening, September 6, by the National Committee for the Defense of the Activists of the “Freedom Flotilla and the Palestinian Right ” in the Tunisian capital.

A number of activists participated in the march, raising slogans including: “The people want the criminalization of normalization” " "Freedom and justice for the heroes of the flotilla," and "Resistance… resistance, no peace and no compromise." Participants called for the criminalization of normalization with Israel and the release of the Freedom Flotilla prisoners.

On the sidelines of the march, human rights and trade union activist Samia Hawachi said: "Today's march is an expression of defense of the Palestinian right and support for the members of the Freedom Flotilla who are in prisons. It is unacceptable that these people, who were once the pride of Tunisia and went to Palestinian lands and were arrested by Israel, are now prisoners in their own country."

She considered that the "money" narrative is all fabrications and fabricated cases designed to silence the Freedom Flotilla activists and deter them from defending the Palestinian cause and continuing the struggle in Tunisia and Arab countries.

In a related context, civil society activist Randa Fahoula said that the activists spent six months in detention, and that "the charge is love of Palestine and support for the Palestinian people." She added that activist Wael Nawar, known for his support of the Palestinian cause and previously a prisoner under Ben Gvir, has been on hunger strike for 22 days inside prison.

She stressed that the demand is directed to the judiciary to redress the grievances of all detainees, because "their natural place is with their families and in their work." She noted that activist Sanaa Mesahli and Jawhara Chenna have left prison but are under house arrest and cannot work or freely conduct any affairs outside the home: "We demand a full lifting of the injustice against them, because they are prisoners but in another way."

 

"We Will Not Remain Silent and We Will Not Leave the Streets"

Participant Henda Chennawi pointed to the detention of four Freedom Flotilla activists amid a hunger strike by Wael Nawar, one of the activists and a key coordinator of the flotilla. She considered that the trial or detention falls within the framework of political trials, vengeance, and retaliation against activists who expressed their solidarity and struggled to break the siege on Gaza.

She said that if a trial is held, it should be conducted in better conditions, and detainees could be tried while free instead of being held for more than six months: "Tunisian prisons are killing Tunisians," she said, noting that more than twenty prisoners have died in what she described as catastrophic conditions.

Henda Chennawi considered these practices a systematic violation by the government against marginalized people—prisoners of opinion and expression, journalists, lawyers, civil society activists, and other detainees. She stressed that "it has become necessary to address the situation of prisons and the catastrophic state of the judiciary, and to demand freedom for Wael Nawar and all Freedom Flotilla detainees, and freedom also for Palestine and Gaza." She emphasized that their solidarity with Gaza will continue despite all pressures: "We will not remain silent and we will not leave the streets."