09.10.2025 - 23:51 [ Middle East Eye ]

Polish activists return from Gaza flotilla, denounce Israeli ‘brutality’ and Warsaw’s inaction

The delegation, arriving on a flight from Athens, included ruling Civic Platform (PO) lawmaker Franciszek Sterczewski, activists Omar Faris and Nina Ptak, and journalist Ewa Jasiewicz. Faris, Ptak, and Sterczewski were deported to Greece on Monday, while Jasiewicz had left Israel earlier.

Sterczewski sharply criticized both Israel and Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.(…)

“They treated us absolutely brutally. For several hours, I’m 73 years old, they tied my hands behind my back and put me on rocks,” Faris said.

He added that during interrogation in an Israeli prison, the activists were questioned about possible links to Hamas. “Our problem is the occupation, which began 42 years before the founding of Hamas,” he said. “You won’t be able to kill us. And we don’t want to kill you either. We want a solution like in South Africa — a democratic state for all, regardless of religion.”