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yanis varoufakis
Varoufakis Decries Western Complicity as Gaza Flotilla Leaders Abducted by Israel
"This is a double violation of international law: First, Israel abducted them illegally at sea. Second, Israel is now transporting them, violently, illegally, to one of its notorious prisons."
May 01, 2026
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Friday slammed European leaders—and the West at large—for what he said is their complicity in Israel's abduction of two leaders of the Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla seized off the coast of Greece.
In what numerous critics called an act of piracy, Israeli authorities intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla on Thursday in international waters 45 nautical miles west of the Greek island Kythira and 600 nautical miles from Gaza, according to Greenpeace, whose MY Arctic Sunrise was the aid convoy's most prominent vessel.
Around 175 activists aboard 22 vessels were seized by Israeli forces. The BBC reported Friday that most of them have been released in Greece.
Some of the flotilla members said they were beaten and dragged while handcuffed. The Washington Post reported 34 people—including citizens of Australia, Colombia, Italy, Ukraine, and the United States—required medical attention for broken ribs, noses, and other injuries. Detained activists also said they were denied food and water and were forced to sleep on deliberately flooded floors.
Flotilla organizers said 31 of the remaining vessels will continue heading toward Palestine in a bid to "break the illegal siege of Gaza."
Two members of the flotilla steering committee—Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila—were taken to Israel for interrogation.
Abu Keshek is a Spanish-Swedish citizen of Palestinian origin. Ávila is Brazilian. Israel's Foreign Ministry claimed that Abu Keshek is "suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization" and Ávila is "suspected of illegal activity."
As is very often the case with Palestinians it has killed, Israel provided no evidence to support its claims against the accused.
Spain and Brazil have been outspoken critics of Israeli human rights crimes, and both countries have formally joined the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Varoufakis noted on X that Ávila "has distinguished himself with repeated attempts to break the illegal, genocidal, Israeli blockage of Gaza."
"Unlike the remaining abducted members of the Sumud Flotilla crew, which the Israeli navy disembarked in Crete, Saif and Thiago are detained and bound for an Israeli prison," the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 co-founder continued. "This is a double violation of international law: First, Israel abducted them illegally at sea. Second, Israel is now transporting them, violently, illegally, to one of its notorious prisons."
It is not known where Israel will send the two men. Ávila was previously held at Ayalon Prison in Ramla, along with other activists seized from the Madleen last summer. Ávila reportedly refused deportation papers and launched a hunger strike, prompting prison authorities to place him in solitary confinement.
While it is not as notorious as the Sde Teiman military prison—where former inmates and Israeli staff have described torture, rape, murder, and other abuse of Palestinians—Ayalon Prison's alleged human rights violations include torture, medical neglect, and deliberately degrading conditions.
"Meanwhile," Varoufakis said Friday, "the Greek government is cooperating fully in Israel’s criminal behavior, effectively surrendering its search and rescue obligations and conniving with Israel to victimize the brave crews of the Sumud Flotilla who are steadfastly, through their activism, defending international law as well as the verdict of the International Court of Justice, which has clearly and unequivocally declared Israel’s continued naval blockade of Gaza and its occupation of the Palestinian territories illegal."
"Through their complicity and their silence, the Greek government, the European Union, the mainstream media, the West more generally, are flouting, indeed they are trashing, their supposed, much publicized, ‘Western values,'" he added.
Varoufakis is calling on the world to demand:
- The immediate release of Saif and Thiago;
- An end to Israel’s criminal behavior in international waters;
- The termination of Israel’s illegal Gaza blockade; and
- That the Greek government and the European Union cease and desist from lending logistical and moral support to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its ethnic cleansing campaigns in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Varoufakis' call was echoed by the Global Sumud Flotilla, which demanded that "all governments do all they can to pressure the Israeli regime to release all the illegal abductees."
Spanish officials including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also decried Thursday's raid and demanded the release of the flotilla activists while calling for an end to EU-Israel Association Agreement, a bilateral trade and economic policy framework.
"Israel is once again violating international law by assaulting a civilian flotilla in waters that do not belong to it," Sánchez said on X. "Our government is doing everything necessary to protect and assist the detained Spaniards. But that is not enough. The EU must suspend the association agreement NOW and demand that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu comply with the law of our seas."
On the other hand, US State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott condemned the flotilla as a "pro-Hamas initiative" and called on allied countries "to take decisive action against this meaningless political stunt."
The United States provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support including repeated vetoes of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions for Gaza.
Israel maintains that its actions were legal. Its officials have repeatedly invoked the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea—often shortened to the San Remo Manual—to justify the interception and seizure of flotilla vessels attempting to reach Gaza on the high seas.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities including Athens, Barcelona, Gaza City, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Paris, and Rome on Thursday as protesters showed solidarity with the flotilla members and condemned Israel's actions.
"We will block everything". Mass protest in Rome after the seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla
[image or embed]
— stefano portelli (@stafe.bsky.social) April 30, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Meanwhile, Gazans continue to suffer from Israel's bombing and blockade, which have killed or wounded more than 250,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened around 2 million others.
Earlier this week, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said that despite "some improvements in access and aid delivery... food security remains a challenge, while essential services, particularly water, sanitation, and health, are again on the brink of collapse."
Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.
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'The Tankers Just Keep Coming': US Military Movements Spike Fears of Imminent Attack on Iran
"HANDS OFF IRAN Mr. TRUMP," said Yanis Varoufakis. "And to the rest of us: Let's do whatever it takes to oppose another war crime—this time against the Iranian people."
Feb 18, 2026
As an adviser to President Donald Trump told Axios that "I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action" against Iran in the next few weeks following nuclear talks in Switzerland, US military movement on Wednesday fueled fears of an imminent attack on the Middle Eastern country.
Multiple open-source intelligence accounts on social media shared images of what OSINTdefender called "one of the busiest days for the US Air Force in Europe that I have seen in recent history, with close to a dozen KC-135R/T Stratotankers airborne across the Mediterranean and off the coast of Spain, while a steady line of C-17A Globemaster IIIs can be seen heading towards and returning from bases in the Middle East."
Sharing a similar image showing North America, Europe, and the top of Africa, intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander declared on X that "the tankers just keep coming."
Greek economist and Progressive International co-founder Yanis Varoufakis responded to that post with a clear message directed at Trump—who notably abandoned the United States' previous nuclear deal with Iran during his first term.
"Looks like an imminent US strike is in train as US tanker planes are heading eastwards. HANDS OFF IRAN Mr. TRUMP," he said. "And to the rest of us: Let's do whatever it takes to oppose another war crime—this time against the Iranian people."
Also spotlighting the US military movements on Wednesday, progressive US political commentator and talk show host Kyle Kulinski nodded to Trump's deadly invasion of Venezuela last month to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and hand over the South American country's nationalized oil industry to his US campaign donors.
A US attack on Iran by "imperialist warmonger Trump" would be "another illegal and offensive war against a country that didn't attack us," Kulinski said.
The observed military movements came just hours after Axios not only published the Trump official's remark about a 90% chance of war, but also reported that "a US military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weekslong campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month's pinpoint operation in Venezuela," according to unnamed sources who "noted it would likely be a joint US-Israeli campaign."
In the Middle East, "Trump's armada has grown to include two aircraft carriers, a dozen warships, hundreds of fighter jets, and multiple air defense systems. Some of that firepower is still on its way," the outlet highlighted. "More than 150 US military cargo flights have moved weapons systems and ammunition to the Middle East. Just in the past 24 hours, another 50 fighter jets—F-35s, F-22s, and F-16s—headed to the region."
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that leaders in Iran "want to reach a nuclear deal with the US, but they are also rushing to prepare for war in case talks between the countries fail," including by "deploying its forces, dispersing decision-making authority, fortifying its nuclear sites, and expanding its crackdown on domestic dissent."
As the newspaper detailed:
A Russian warship arrived at the Strait of Hormuz and docked at the Iranian port town of Bandar Abbas ahead of a military exercise planned for Thursday, according to Iranian and Russian state-run media.
The exercises are taking place not far from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is sailing off the coast of Oman.
"More dangerous than the American warship is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea," Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday.
While Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said this week's "constructive" talks with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner concluded with "a general agreement on some guiding principles," US Vice President JD Vance contributed to rising concerns on Tuesday as he discussed the ayatollah's remarks, negotiations, and regional military buildup on Fox News.
"I think the president has a lot of options. We do have a very powerful military. The president's shown a willingness to use it. He also has a remarkable diplomatic team and he's shown a willingness to use that too," Vance said. "The United States has certain red lines. Our primary interest here is we don't want Iran to get a nuclear weapon."
Vance, who noted that he spoke directly with Witkoff and Kushner earlier Tuesday, claimed that the administration wants a resolution reached through conversation but also stressed that Trump "has all options on the table."
Appearing on Democracy Now! Wednesday, Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on US-Iranian relations, warned that "we have a very dangerous situation, because both sides actually believe that a short, intense war may improve their negotiating position. The Trump administration, of course, believes that because of its overwhelming military power that it has now gathered in the vicinity of Iran, it will be able to take out Iran militarily rather quickly and then force it to capitulate."
"The Iranians have a different calculation," Parsi continued. "They believe that they have the ability to inflict significant damage on the United States in the short term, including on civilian oil installations in the region, closing down the Strait of Hormuz, that would shoot up oil prices, and the initial cost of this to the United States would be so immense, and the United States would recognize that it would have to go for a longer war, which it cannot afford, and as a result, it would get the United States to back off."
Parsi previously led the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which said in a Wednesday statement that the anonymous Trump official's comment about a 90% chance of an armed conflict with Iran "should trigger immediate action from Congress, the branch of government legally and constitutionally charged with deciding when the US goes to war."
"With extensive military deployments underway and public signals that diplomacy may soon be abandoned, the risk of a large-scale, prolonged, and senseless conflict is immediate and real," NIAC argued. "A war on Iran would not help Iranians demanding change in the face of government repression but instead kill innocent people, create instability inside Iran, and ignite a regionwide conflict."
The Republican-controlled Congress has so far shown an unwillingness to stand up to Trump's violence abroad, with multiple war powers resolutions about Venezuela and his boat bombings on high seas failing. Still, NIAC pressured lawmakers to act now, emphasizing that "a war with Iran would carry enormous regional consequences, endanger American service members and Iranian civilians alike, destabilize global markets, and risk spiraling escalation across the region and diminished civil liberties at home."
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Leading Economists Endorse UN Expert's 'Economy of Genocide' Report After Trump Attack
A group of economists, including Thomas Piketty and Yanis Varoufakis, expressed solidarity with Francesca Albanese as the Trump administration pushes for her removal as U.N. special rapporteur on occupied Palestine.
Jul 08, 2025
A group of world-renowned economists has penned an open letter expressing support for United Nations expert Francesca Albanese's recent report scrutinizing the integral role that powerful corporations have played in sustaining Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories.
The letter, first obtained and published in English by Zeteo on Monday, characterizes Albanese's report as "a major contribution to understanding the political economy of Israel's apartheid state, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and, now, their genocide," and argues her findings "must be studied and debated widely and freely."
The letter's signatories include former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, French economist Thomas Piketty, and University of Massachusetts Amherst economics professor Jayati Ghosh.
The economists' endorsement of Albanese's report comes days after the Trump administration issued a statement calling on United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to remove her as special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. The statement was released a day after the publication of Albanese's report, which the Trump administration characterizes as part of "an unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy."
The top economists cited the Trump administration's statement as a key impetus behind their decision to publicly back Albanese's work.
"In view of the virulently hostile and indeed intimidating letter from the U.S. government to the U.N. secretary-general demanding the dismissal of Ms. Albanese and the quashing of her excellent report, we felt the need to express our strong support for Ms. Albanese and to encourage the U.N. to dismiss the shrill demands of the U.S. and Israeli governments," the economists wrote.
"Following a well-trodden path of genocide denial and of bullying anyone who challenges the right of the colonial power to dispossess Indigenous peoples," they continued, "the U.S. and Israeli governments, with most European governments too timid to take a stance, demand that the international community turn a blind eye to the ongoing genocide and, in particular, to the key role that multinational and national corporations are playing in maintaining the apartheid regime and enabling the subsequent genocide."
This is not business as usual.
My new UN report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, is out today.
It shows how corporations have fueled and legitimised the destruction of Palestine.
Genocide, it would seem, is profitable. This cannot continue, accountability must… pic.twitter.com/Ei3atw0TQ1
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 1, 2025
Albanese's report thoroughly documents corporate complicity and direct participation in Israel's assault on Palestinians, specifically naming dozens of corporations in a range of sectors—from Lockheed Martin to Microsoft to Chevron to Palantir.
"The complex web of corporate structures—and the often obscured links between parents and subsidiaries, franchises, joint ventures, licensees, etc.—implicates many more," Albanese wrote. "Israel's ongoing illegal occupation of the oPt creates an untenable situation for corporate entities to simply continue business as usual."
"The private sector must, in its own interests, urgently reconsider all engagement connected to Israel's economy of occupation and now genocide," she added.
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