The Be'er Sheva District Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two Gaza flotilla activists against their detention in Israel after they were intercepted near Crete and brought to the country.
The two, Saif Abu Keshek, a Palestinian resident of Spain, and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila, began a hunger strike Thursday to protest their detention. Abu Keshek said he would stop drinking water until he is released.
Judge Tal Lahiani ruled that there had been no error in the lower court’s decision to keep them in custody.
The two deny the allegations against them. Adalah, the legal rights group representing them, said they were subjected to psychological abuse and denied proper care. Israeli authorities rejected the claims.
Police said the two are suspected, among other offenses, of membership in a terrorist organization, assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with terrorist elements and contact with a foreign agent. A police representative said they had tied themselves to PCPA, which Israel defines as a terrorist organization.
Adalah attorneys argued that Israel lacked jurisdiction because the arrests took place outside Israeli territorial waters, in international waters near Greece, on a foreign vessel. Lahiani rejected the argument, citing case law that Israeli courts may have jurisdiction over certain offenses even if they were not committed inside Israel.
The attorneys also claimed discrimination, saying other flotilla activists had already been released in Greece. The judge rejected that claim, saying there was evidence and reasonable suspicion of specific offenses against Abu Keshek and Ávila, unlike the others.
Adalah also said the two are blindfolded whenever they leave their cells, including for medical checks, in violation of medical ethics. The state has provided limited details about the grounds for the arrests, citing concern over obstruction of the investigation.