FEMYSO Called on Europe to Protect Sumud Aid Flotilla to Gaza

The Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO) has called on Europe to pro­tect   the Sumud Aid Flotil­la as the con­voy approached Gaza. On 22 Sep­tem­ber 2025, FEMYSO pub­lished a state­ment demand­ing that Euro­pean gov­ern­ments and par­lia­ments pub­licly guar­an­tee safe pas­sage for the Sumud Flotil­la, inter­vene diplo­mat­i­cal­ly, and hold Israel account­able for any unlaw­ful actions against the civil­ian ves­sels car­ry­ing human­i­tar­i­an aid to the Gaza Strip. The arti­cle begins:

FEMYSO calls on Euro­pean gov­ern­ments and par­lia­ments to pub­licly guar­an­tee safe pas­sage for the Sumud Flotil­la, to inter­vene diplo­mat­i­cal­ly, and to hold Israel account­able for any vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al law against this peace­ful human­i­tar­i­an mis­sion. The Sumud Flotil­la rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal civil­ian-led effort to break the ille­gal block­ade on Gaza and deliv­er des­per­ate­ly need­ed aid to Pales­tin­ian fam­i­lies fac­ing cat­a­stroph­ic human­i­tar­i­an con­di­tions. Euro­pean cit­i­zens par­tic­i­pat­ing in this mis­sion deserve the full pro­tec­tion and sup­port of their gov­ern­ments as they exer­cise their rights to peace­ful human­i­tar­i­an action. FEMYSO empha­sizes that the flotil­la’s mis­sion aligns with fun­da­men­tal Euro­pean val­ues of human rights, inter­na­tion­al law, and sol­i­dar­i­ty with oppressed peo­ples. The orga­ni­za­tion urges Euro­pean insti­tu­tions to take con­crete diplo­mat­ic steps to ensure the safe­ty of all par­tic­i­pants, many of whom are young Euro­pean Mus­lims exer­cis­ing their civic duty. FEMYSO con­demns any attempts to intim­i­date, threat­en, or harm flotil­la par­tic­i­pants and demands that Euro­pean lead­ers take a prin­ci­pled stand in defense of human­i­tar­i­an val­ues and inter­na­tion­al mar­itime law.

Read more: https://femyso.org/femyso-calls-on-europe-to-protect-the-sumud-aid-flotilla/

Key Points

• FEMYSO called on Euro­pean gov­ern­ments to pub­licly guar­an­tee safe pas­sage for the Sumud Flotil­la and inter­vene diplo­mat­i­cal­ly on behalf of participants.

• The orga­ni­za­tion empha­sized that the flotil­la rep­re­sents civil­ian-led human­i­tar­i­an action aligned with fun­da­men­tal Euro­pean val­ues and inter­na­tion­al law principles.

• FEMYSO demand­ed that Euro­pean lead­ers hold Israel account­able for any vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al law against the peace­ful human­i­tar­i­an mission.

• The state­ment high­light­ed that many young Euro­pean Mus­lims par­tic­i­pat­ing in the flotil­la deserve full gov­ern­men­tal pro­tec­tion while exer­cis­ing civic duty.

In Octo­ber, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) announced a  GIOR report, titled “The Glob­al Sumud Flotil­la of 2025: Human­i­tar­i­an Activism or Islamist Influ­ence Oper­a­tion?” The Exec­u­tive Sum­ma­ry begins:

The Glob­al Sumud Flotil­la of 2025 rep­re­sents the cul­mi­na­tion of fif­teen years of mar­itime and land-based efforts to chal­lenge Israel’s block­ade of Gaza—an evo­lu­tion from iso­lat­ed activist voy­ages into a coor­di­nat­ed transna­tion­al move­ment root­ed in Islamist-linked civ­il soci­ety net­works. Framed as a human­i­tar­i­an mis­sion amid the 2023–25 Gaza war, the flotil­la brought togeth­er over forty ves­sels and five hun­dred par­tic­i­pants from forty-four coun­tries, unit­ing West­ern activists, Glob­al South NGOs, and long-stand­ing Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed orga­ni­za­tions under a ban­ner of“steadfastness” (sumud). Israel’s inter­cep­tion of all ves­sels reignit­ed a glob­al debate over whether such actions con­sti­tute civil­ian sol­i­dar­i­ty or polit­i­cal the­ater direct­ed by Hamas’s for­eign apparatus.

Down­load the full report here.

From Mosques to Flotillas: Muslim Brotherhood Palestine Activism Across Europe

Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-linked orga­ni­za­tions across Europe have sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly mobi­lized mass Pales­tine sol­i­dar­i­ty cam­paigns through coor­di­nat­ed reli­gious appeals, human­i­tar­i­an con­voy ini­tia­tives, and transna­tion­al activist net­works. The Euro­pean Coun­cil of Imams issued an urgent Gaza appeal call­ing for sol­i­dar­i­ty fast­ing days and esca­lat­ed pub­lic pres­sure on Euro­pean gov­ern­ments to impose sanc­tions on Israel while orga­niz­ing Fri­day ser­mons across the con­ti­nent to raise aware­ness about what they char­ac­ter­ized as geno­cide and star­va­tion warfare.

UK Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Anas Altikri­ti, founder of the Cor­do­ba Foun­da­tion, has coor­di­nat­ed mil­lions of activists across six con­ti­nents through the Glob­al Alliance for Pales­tine, mobi­liz­ing more than 75 sol­i­dar­i­ty move­ments in 26 coun­tries for world­wide days of action demand­ing imme­di­ate cease­fire and weapons embar­goes. Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed fig­ures have played cen­tral roles in Gaza flotil­la mis­sions, with con­tro­ver­sial Swiss-Pales­tin­ian activist Anouar Ghar­bi serv­ing as advi­sor to the Waves of Free­dom Switzer­land ini­tia­tive despite his his­to­ry as a board mem­ber of a US-des­ig­nat­ed Hamas sup­port orga­ni­za­tion and his found­ing role in the Euro­pean Cam­paign to End the Siege on Gaza.

These advo­ca­cy efforts oper­ate at the inter­sec­tion of polit­i­cal lob­by­ing, grass­roots activism, and human­i­tar­i­an relief, with Broth­er­hood-linked orga­ni­za­tions form­ing strate­gic alliances with pro­gres­sive activists and left-wing move­ments to ampli­fy their influ­ence with­in main­stream Euro­pean dis­course and shape pol­i­cy debates around the Israeli-Pales­tin­ian conflict.

Exter­nal references:

• Map­ping the lead­ers of the demon­stra­tions sup­port­ing Hamas in East­ern Euro­pean Union countries
• Turkey, the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, and the Gaza Flotilla
• The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood’s Pan-Euro­pean Structure

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) uti­lizes AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing the gen­er­a­tion of sum­maries for news items, intro­duc­tions, key points, and, often, the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, all images are gen­er­at­ed using AI and are intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.