Joint Fish Stock Assessment In The South China Sea: Sustaining A Good Catch – Analysis

July 8, 2026 
By Lucio Blanco Pitlo III

Key Takeaways

Fish Stocks Ignore Borders — Highly migratory species like tunas, mackerels, and squids require regional cooperation. Joint stock assessments provide essential scientific data for sustainable management in the South China Sea.

Ongoing Practical Cooperation — The Common Fisheries Resource Analysis (CFRA) has completed two rounds of assessments (skipjack tuna and little tuna) with a third (squids) underway, involving scientists from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam.

Low-Politics Success Model — CFRA avoids sensitive sovereignty issues, uses voluntary participation and shared methodologies, and demonstrates that science-based collaboration can build trust and prevent overfishing despite territorial disputes.

Analysis

Fish knows no boundaries. Straddling and highly migratory commercial species like tunas, billfishes, mackerels, and squids do not recognize artificial lines drawn on the sea. Hence, managing such transboundary stocks requires regional, if not international, cooperation. And one cannot manage something one cannot measure. This highlights the significance of conducting joint fish stock assessments to gauge the health, size, and factors affecting wild marine catch. Although less known, two rounds of joint fish stock assessments have already been conducted in the South China Sea (SCS), with the third underway. Hence, while the sea’s reputation as a flashpoint gets more limelight, coastal states continue to pursue practical cooperation, quietly but effectively.

Joint fish stock assessments help science, industry, and diplomacy. They provide a basis for data-driven solutions to manage commercial fisheries bounty that defies borders. They foster collaboration between marine scientists and policymakers of neighboring coastal states. This partnership can prevent a tragedy of the commons, in this case, the collapse of rich fishing grounds beyond the point of recovery. It creates a platform for non-sensitive, pragmatic, and science-based cooperation without prejudice to competing sovereign claims. Years of sustained work can gradually build trust and confidence. Along with economic impetus, it can help set the stage for bigger undertakings, such as fisheries arrangements or maritime boundary delimitation. Joint fisheries surveys are not unprecedented, with ample extant cases offering valuable references.

Precedents and success stories

The North Sea has one of the most institutionalized fisheries cooperation. Stock assessment is conducted by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), while management decisions are negotiated jointly by the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Norway. ICES, founded in 1902 by eight Northern European coastal countries, provides advice on sustainable catches. It now has 19 member countries, and its geographic coverage has expanded to other areas of the Northeast Atlantic. Economics is a key motivation. North Sea’s approximate annual fisheries landed value alone is $3-4billion, an industry too big to be lost to unchecked fishing.

Considered a gold standard in fisheries cooperation amid overlapping maritime claims is the one between Norway and Russia in the Barents Sea. Their Joint Fisheries Commission meets annually to determine total allowable catches (TAC) and allocate quotas for their fishermen and for those of third countries. Cooperation on fisheries research between the two sides has a long history dating back to the 1900s, becoming more organized in the 1950s and formalized through agreements reached in 1975 and 1976. The joint management prevents overfishing and ensures the sustainability of a billion-dollar annual catch of cod, haddock, and capelin. Last year alone, $2 billionworth of cod and other seafood landed in Norwegian ports. In 2010, the two countries agreed to demarcate their maritime boundaries. Even after this, the Joint Fisheries Commission continues to serve as a coordination framework for setting TACs and quotas for transboundary fisheries.

Taking cues and localizing

In contrast to long historical and formal fisheries cooperation in northern Europe, management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks in East Asia’s waters remains fragmented. This is despite the region’s semi-enclosed seas, such as the SCS, being home to some of the most biodiverse and abundant commercial marine catches. The absence of bodies like ICES led to weaker scientific coordination, a higher risk of overfishing, greater exposure to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, uncertain long-term viability of the capture fisheries industry, and heightened political tensions. Some countries have entered into fisheries agreements, but these have yet to lead to regular joint scientific work and comprehensive stock surveys. For instance, China has entered into fisheries pacts with Japan (signed in 1997 and entered into force in 2000) in the East China Sea and with South Korea (signed in 2000 and took effect in 2001) in the Yellow Sea.

The fisheries accord between China and Vietnam in the Beibu Gulf, signed in 2000 and entering into force in 2004, is probably among the most advanced in the region. Unlike those reached by Beijing with Tokyo and Seoul, this deal came with a maritime boundary delimitation. The agreement established a joint fisheries committee and facilitated joint stock assessments. It capped the number of fishing vessels allowed to operate in the Common Fishery Zone and included a provision for setting allowable catch based on joint surveys.

In the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas, a subregional governance framework is evolving, promoting joint identification of transboundary fishery issues, collaborative scientific work, ecosystem-based fisheries management, data sharing, and harmonization measures. These developments, though relatively new, are promising and offer hope for future management of transboundary fisheries in choppy waters.

Defying the odds

Joint stock assessment in the SCS is done through the Common Fisheries Resource Analysis (CFRA), a groundbreaking initiative. Like the North Sea, SCS is a semi-enclosed sea bordered by multiple countries. But unlike the Mediterranean or Black Seas, there is no dedicated regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) for SCS. Coastal states surrounding the marginal sea neither have formal delimitation nor fisheries agreements, except in the Beibu Gulf between China and Vietnam. Hence, CFRA’s ability to thrive despite the lack of a sturdy anchor is commendable. As a pioneering undertaking in SCS, CFRA can lay the foundation for greater fisheries cooperation in the future. Hosting 12% of the world’s total catch estimated at $21.8 billion, the stakes are high in promoting sustainable fishing in SCS.

CFRA is a voluntary scientific partnership involving participants from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam. More than 100 scientists and policymakers gathered for a series of workshops from 2018 to 2022 to develop shared evidence to inform cooperative management of the sea’s bounty. An informal SCS Fisheries Working Group was formed. A uniform methodology, the length-based spawning potential ratio (LBSPR), was adopted to assess the status of selected species.

The first CFRA result on skipjack tuna was published in a simultaneous event in Manila and Beijing in 2022. Former Philippine National Security Adviser Dr. Clarita Carlos delivered the keynote speech, where she stressed the importance of pursuing low-politics cooperation to build trust and confidence. The second round focused on the little tuna, and the findings were shared in a seminar in Qingdao in 2025. The third iteration is looking at the Mitre squid and the Indian Ocean squid. As squids are particularly sensitive to changes in water temperature, the third survey can also reveal the effects of global warming and climate change on SCS’s capture fisheries.

CFRA demonstrated the possibility and salience of continued cooperation among state-affiliated scientists and experts to provide a big-picture perspective on a specific fisheries resource that no single country can provide. Certain common standards, including a shared method for assessing a particular transboundary stock, were embraced. Its success can be attributed to several features. First, participation in the process was voluntary, and policymakers were involved. Second, territorial disputes and other sensitivities were avoided. Third, the sharing of raw data or other sensitive information was not required. In the early stages, fisheries managers, diplomats, and government officials convened to create a shared strategy. A reputable international non-government organization, the Swiss-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, was a key player, serving as the secretariat and facilitator.

In sum, joint fish stock assessment in SCS is a good start worth sustaining. Collaboration among marine scientists can provide valuable advice in managing transboundary fisheries, averting a tragedy in the maritime commons. Joint capture fisheries surveys can recommend maximum catches, prohibit certain fishing practices, and suggest a common closed fishing season to allow stocks to replenish naturally. Coastal states can also cooperate to restock overfished areas. That such joint surveys are now in their third round shows that coastal states can rise above the noise and still carry on practical cooperation quietly but effectively.

As the history of the North and Barents Seas revealed, preserving the economic value from capture fisheries wealth can move states to cooperate even without delimitation or formal fisheries agreements. That said, it helps if such worthy scientific activities are spared from political or diplomatic turbulence.

About Lucio Blanco Pitlo III
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation. He was a lecturer at the Chinese Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University and the International Studies Department at the De La Salle University and contributing editor (Reviews) for the journal Asian Politics & Policy. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies. He obtained his Master of Laws from Peking University and a MA International Affairs at American University in Washington D.C.
View all posts by Lucio Blanco Pitlo III →

 

Fossilized babies of ancient crocodile-like predators uproot scientists’ understanding of how animals adapted to the land

Baby fossil tetrapods show that the common ancestors of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals did not evolve from animals with amphibian-like tadpoles, as previously thought

Field Museum

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Baby crocodile-like early tetrapods called embolomeres. New fossil evidence suggests that these embolomeres did not undergo a metamorphosis the way that modern amphibians do when growing up, which challenges a long-standing scientific belief that amphibians, reptiles, and mammals evolved from animals that had a tadpole stage. Illustration by Berit Goding.

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Credit: Berit Godring

Life on our planet began in the water. Eventually, one branch of the fish family tree developed legs and came up on land. These early four-legged animals, the tetrapods, were the forebears of today’s mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Scientists have long thought that the earliest of these occasional-land-dwellers were like modern amphibians, in that they hatched from eggs, underwent a tadpole phase, and then transformed into their adult bodies. But in a new study in the journal Science, researchers announce the discovery of fossilized baby early tetrapods, which skipped the tadpole metamorphosis scientists had expected to see. The finding means that the first land-dwelling vertebrates were less like modern amphibians than had previously been thought— upending scientists’ understanding of how animals conquered the land.

“When a lot of us were in high school, we were taught this simplified story of evolution: that some fish evolved into amphibians, and some of those amphibians evolved into reptiles, and some of those reptiles evolved into mammals. And our study shows that this basic underlying premise, that the first four-legged vertebrates grew up like amphibians, is wrong,” says Jason Pardo, a research associate at the Field Museum and the study’s co-lead author.

“This is the first time we’ve had these early, early hatchling animals. This discovery is really a testament to the power of Mazon Creek, the site where these fossils came from,” says Arjan Mann, the Field Museum’s Assistant Curator of Early Tetrapods and the study’s other co-lead author. “It’s an hour’s drive southwest of Chicago, and it’s one of the best fossil sites in the world, especially for soft tissues and delicate little fossils like these baby tetrapods. Mazon Creek fossils are time capsules that capture the impossible.”

The study makes use of dozens of Mazon Creek fossils representing the evolutionary transition between fish and four-legged animals, or tetrapods, but two “centerpiece” fossils are babies of an animal called an embolomere. Embolomeres were crocodile-like early tetrapods that were among the top predators in rivers, lakes, and swamps from 350 to 280 million years ago. As adults, they could reach lengths of over ten feet, but the specimens found at Mazon Creek are babies that were just a few centimeters long.

“I first saw the baby embolomere fossil about ten years ago, when I was working on my PhD,” says Mann. “It’s in the collections at the Field Museum, and the curator of tetrapods at the time, John Bolt, pulled it out of a drawer and showed it to me when I was visiting. At the time, it hadn’t yet been identified as an embolomere, but I was really drawn to it, and John loaned me the fossil to study.”

Mann and Pardo, who were both PhD students in Canada at the time, spent years puzzling over the strange fossil. “We had so many conversations over the past decade about what the heck this thing was,” says Mann. “Every night, we’d go back and forth saying, what’s this feature? What could this thing be?” Eventually, analysis with scanning electron microscopy at the Canadian Museum of Nature confirmed the fossil’s identity as an embolomere. But that led to even more questions.

The baby embolomere, despite being an early tetrapod, didn’t show the amphibian-like tadpole features that scientists assumed an early tetrapod tadpole would have. While the juvenile tetrapod did indeed grow limbs over the course of its development, it was missing key amphibian tadpole traits like frilly external gills. The same held true for another smaller embolomere that the team analyzed, as well as for other species of fossil baby tetrapod relatives. Even when the larval stages did undergo big changes on their way to adulthood, they did not show signs of true amphibian metamorphosis.

“We looked at a number of different species that represent different lineages in the transition from fish to tetrapods, and what we found is that none of them have anything that looks remotely like a tadpole. And if you don't have a tadpole, then you don't have a metamorphosis,” says Pardo. “These early tetrapods’ life cycles are more like ours, or like those of fish, than they are like amphibians.”

And if animals like embolomere didn’t have a tadpole form or a true amphibian metamorphosis, that means that the widely-accepted hypothesis that reptiles and mammals evolved from amphibian-like animals is incorrect.  “The story was that metamorphosis is the tool by which animals made the transition from fossil to land. That story doesn’t work anymore, it’s dust in the wind,” says Pardo.

Mann notes that this discovery, which rewrites decades of scientific understanding of early tetrapod evolution, would not have been possible without the collaboration of many people. “Every single specimen in this paper was a joint effort with the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois, the Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science and Education, and the Field Museum. We could not have done this without the help of lots of scientists, including citizen scientists and volunteers,” says Mann. “People like Paul Demkovich, Ben Riegler, Rich Rock, and Tom Testa allowed us to study specimens that they found, and these specimens have changed the course of our understanding of how tetrapods evolved. This is a monumental discovery, and it could not have happened without citizen science.”

###

 

Caption

Fossil baby embolomere, showing that young embolomeres did not undergo a full amphibian-like metamorphosis.

Credit

Arjan Mann

 

Caption

Illustration showing a baby embolomere, with an adult in the background.

 

Credit

Gabriel Ugueto

---

Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.aeb7635 

Article Title

Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition

Article Publication Date

18-Jun-2026

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• Fossilized babies of ancient crocodile-like predators uproot scientists’ understanding of how animals adapted to the land
  (Field Museum)

This perfectly preserved pterosaur wing just rewrote the fossil rulebook

Curtin University

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Microscope view of a pterosaur fossil section showing carbon coating and mineral layers. Microscope view of a pterosaur fossil section showing carbon coating and mineral layers.

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Credit: Grice et al., iScience (2026)

An international study led by Curtin University has revealed new insights into how an ancient flying reptile was preserved in extraordinary detail for 113 million years – offering a rare glimpse into a vanished world.

 

That the fossilised wing phalanx of a prehistoric pterosaur, found in northeastern Brazil, was so remarkably preserved in three dimensions - even retaining chemical traces hinting at its diet – is thanks to the action of special bacteria and a unique ancient marine environment.

 

Lead author Kliti Grice, a John Curtin Distinguished Professor and founding Director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre at Curtin, said the findings open a new window into fossil formation.

 

“This fossil is a true time capsule — not only is it beautifully preserved, but for the first time we’ve detected traces of steroids in a pterosaur, providing further evidence that these creatures likely fed on fish or squid,” Professor Grice said.

 

“It also marks the first time molecules have been recovered from a pterosaur fossil, revealing new clues about its diet and highlighting the growing potential of molecular palaeontology to unlock secrets from deep time.

 

“Steroid preservation in fossils is exceptionally rare but what’s even more fascinating is that our findings challenge long-held ideas about fossil preservation itself. Rather than being destroyed by oxygen, some fossils are preserved because of it, through oxidative processes carried out by ancient microbiomes.

 

“After this pterosaur died and sank to the seabed, a perfect storm of chemistry, biology and the environment worked to seal its story in stone. Microbes, including sulfur-oxidising bacteria, began breaking down the soft tissue and fats and triggered mineralisation around the body - a process that, over time, helped preserve its structure in incredible detail for more than 100 million years.”

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to master powered flight, with some species reaching wingspans of up to 12 metres. Like modern birds, they had hollow bones, which in certain environmental conditions increased the changes of exceptional fossil preservation.

Professor Grice said the team’s research reveals a new pathway for remarkable fossil preservation, offering fresh insights into ancient life and the unique environmental conditions that enable such remarkable fossilisation.

It adds to the growing evidence that tiny microbes played a big role in this process - something we are now identifying at other fossil sites - presenting a new global Lagerstätten mechanism - the special conditions that make exceptional preservation possible,” Professor Grice said.

The study, conducted in collaboration with researchers from Brazil, Germany and the USA, including colleagues from the Regional University of Cariri and Museu Nacional / Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, used advanced imaging and geochemical techniques at Curtin’s John de Laeter Centre and WA-Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre to unravel how the pterosaur lived and how it was preserved in such remarkable detail.

 

The paper, ‘Multi-staged mineralization and biomarker preservation in a 113-million-year-old pterosaur bone via local redox shifts in diagenesis’, is published in Iscience: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.116199

 

This research was supported by a prestigious ARC Laureate Fellowship awarded to Professor Grice.

 

A short video explaining the research and including animated vision of the pterosaurs can be viewed here.

 

The Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre is offering art prints showcasing this and other research from the centre, with proceeds supporting its work: https://payments.curtin.edu.au/WA-OIGCResearchArtShop/menu

pterosaur sequence [VIDEO] 

From living pterosaur to fossil, sequence. Credit: Victor O Leshyk and Michael Ovens/Curtin University HIVE.

Credit

Victor O Leshyk and Michael Ovens/Curtin University HIVE.

Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2026.116199 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Multi-staged mineralization and biomarker preservation in a 113-million-year-old pterosaur bone via local redox shifts in diagenesis’

BRICS media are not an alternative for anti-imperial resistance

By Farooq Sulehria

Published 27 May, 2026

First published at CADTM.

The emergence of media powerhouses in the global South, such as India, Brazil, Turkey, and South Korea, has captivated media scholars, politicians, and the general public alike. Qatar (with Al Jazeera) and South Africa also play significant roles on the international media stage. While liberal and postmodern academics based in metropolitan universities have framed the rise of these media giants as a sign of the decline of media imperialism, politicians in the global North have used this phenomenon for fear-mongering. For example, Hillary Clinton, who was the Secretary of State at the time, cautioned the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee in 2011 about Al Jazeera, stating, “America is facing an information warfare…and we are losing that war.”

There is no denying the fact that certain sub-imperial countries have fostered mighty media giants. Zee (India), Globo (Brazil), Televisa (Mexico) or Showmax (South Africa) immediately come to mind. Turkish diziler (soap operas) have captivated the Muslim world, while a global audience has embraced K-pop and K-wave films. From Bong Jo Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite (2019) to Squid Game (2019) on Netflix, South Korean media productions are captivating worldwide audiences. In 2023, 4 of Netflix’s 10 most-watched non-English shows were South Korean productions. In the meantime, Showmax is capturing African media markets and audiences. Before evaluating the economic, political, and ideological role of sub-imperial media conglomerates, it is important to differentiate between BRICS media and media sub-imperialism.

BRICS consists of imperial (China and Russia), sub-imperial (Brazil, South Africa, and India), and strong-periphery (Egypt and Iran) countries. It is not a monolithic, homogenous category. On the contrary, sub-imperialism — hence, media sub-imperialism — is a cogent term to specifically identify and place certain nation-states in the global hierarchy of countries. The sub-imperial media are defined by three characteristics. Media sub-imperialism resist as well as collaborate with imperial media. Imperial media partially dominate media sub-imperialism, but they also emerge as the regionally dominant actors. Media sub-imperialism are partially independent (technologically, content-wise) while largely dependent on imperial media in various ways.

Economically, sub-imperial media plough up the domestic (and surrounding peripheries’) media markets for the benefit of imperial media. They serve as the facilitators in the process of accumulation in the metropolitan markets. Consider, for instance, the case of India.

Zee, founded by media maverick Subhash Chandra, was India’s first privately owned television channel, symbolising India’s neo-liberal turn in the early 1990s. Zee, as a mannequin for neo-liberal globalisation, catalysed Rupert Murdoch’s entry into India through joint ventures. Both parted ways soon afterwards, but Zee and Star (Indian arm of Murdoch’s News Corp.), by the 2010s, had become two of the top five media monopolies dominating India’s flourishing television markets. The other three: Disney, Viacom, and Sony were also Hollywood giants. The imperial conglomerates often arrived in India by way of joint ventures with Indian media houses as their junior partners. Both sides benefited. Indian players in the shorter run. Metropolitan chaebols in the long run. Consider the case of Zee. Accessible in 172 countries, it offered a bouquet of 39 global channels (13 in non-Indian languages). It developed a noticeable footprint in the Middle East and Africa.

In 2021, Zee was bought over by Sony (deal legalised in 2023). Meantime, Star was sold to Disney. Now, Indian television (and, to some extent, the film industry) is an extension of Hollywood, albeit it speaks Hindi and other vernacular dialects. It is Indian in form and American in terms of political economy.

Politically, the new media conglomerates, grounded in the sub-imperial media markets, have supported authoritarian regimes in their respective countries. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued global Freedom Index rankings since 2005. See below some selected case studies:

While media freedoms have radically plummeted in India and South Korea, the graph in Brazil dipped considerably during the Bolsonaro period. However, in South Africa, it remains rather stable despite occasional downward trends.

This is understandable. In India, the country’s richest man, Anil Ambani, through his Reliance Industries Limited, aggressively bought over mainstream media outlets and turned them into mouthpieces of Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party/Indian People’s Party (BJP). Critics in India mockingly call mainstream media “Godi Media” (implying lapdog media). In Turkey, ironically, Fox TV News (Rupert Murdoch again!) is considered a beacon of hope since the rest of the mainstream serves as Erdogan’s spokesperson. True, Globo has a dubious position about Bolsonaro. Globo critiques many things about Bolsonaro’s politics but is also supportive of other aspects. However, Globo has a clear negative position on President Lula. And by the way, neither are they coming to the Empire nor is Uncle Sam losing the propaganda war. The audience share controlled by Al Jazeera, China’s CCTV, or Russia’s RT in the US market is negligible.

Ideologically, sub-imperial media are neither counter-hegemonic in relation to media imperialism nor progressive. This argument holds true for “BRICS media” too. Thus concludes noted media scholar Lee Artz’s study on transnational media from China to Turkey: 

Media hegemony … indicates that emerging media prefer the lead media as a model because the lead media had already become a norm. The emerging media adopt production values, distribution practices and social use along the lines of the hegemonic media model for two reasons. One is the hegemonic media, which pre-emptively normalises media practices for late developers. Second, one may assign it to the condition of path dependency. This is how production relations and practices of a particular system of production, distribution, and use become hegemonic/dominant and all-pervasive.

Most importantly, Prof. Artz notes that the profit motive depoliticises and sanitises media content in both South Korea and Brazil, just as it does in Hollywood. The global South media giants promote consumerism and neo-liberal individualism, similar to imperial media, while avoiding themes of class struggle.

In short, the media giants from the global South are neither an ally of the left nor an alternative to the imperial media.

Farooq Sulehria is the editor of Daily Jeddojehad. He teaches at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.

Corsairs of the Mediterranean: Israel’s Latest

Act of State Piracy Unmasks the Zionist

Regime, Yet Again

Michael Leonardi

May 22, 2026

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Photograph Source: Global Sumud Flotilla

This has been yet another week of raw Israeli extremism, broadcast live to the world. On May 18th and 19th, 2026, Israeli commandos carried out an act of state piracy in international waters near Cyprus — more than 250 nautical miles from Gaza. They stormed vessels of the international flotillas, brutally detained unarmed humanitarian activists, destroyed equipment, and held dozens hostage. The Squid Game like images of civilians forced to kneel, zip-tied and humiliated, have shocked global conscience.

Wanted International war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu emerged from a military command bunker to triumphantly praise the raid, bragging that Israeli commandos had successfully stopped the unarmed humanitarian flotilla activists from “supporting Hamas.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — himself the subject of an active International Criminal Court arrest warrant — arrogantly dismissed international law, declaring that Israel would continue to act as it pleased regardless of “so-called” legal constraints. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir turned the assault into a sadistic public spectacle. On May 20, he paraded detainees, forcing many to lie face-down on the ground with their hands tightly chained or tied behind their backs, mocking them for the cameras in a grotesque display of fascist cruelty and arrogance. Ben-Gvir, a convicted racist who has long advocated executing Palestinian prisoners by hanging, has repeatedly celebrated such imagery, including wearing a noose pin and posting videos fantasizing about mass executions. His behaviour this week was not an aberration — it was the logical expression of a regime that views Palestinians as subhuman and international law as an inconvenience.

Some have aptly called the Mediterranean Israel’s own or God’s chosen swimming pool — a lawless expanse where the self-proclaimed chosen people believe divine right grants them total impunity to rampage across international waters, throwing basic humanity to the wind in service of their messianic delusions. So far, they have done exactly that, and with complete impunity.

The mission of the flotillas is both immediate and strategic: to break Israel’s illegal naval blockade of Gaza, deliver desperately needed aid, and shine an unrelenting spotlight on the ongoing genocide. Imposed in 2007 as collective punishment, the blockade has long been calibrated through the infamous “Red Lines” policy — allowing just enough food to keep 2.3 million Palestinians on the edge of starvation. Since October 2023, it has helped enable a live-streamed extermination: hospitals systematically destroyed, children dying of malnutrition, entire families erased. With total impunity, backed by Washington and its European allies, Israel has turned Gaza into the most documented slaughter in modern history.

Art by Vauro Senesi

Three coordinated efforts — the Global Sumud Flotilla, the Thousand Madleens to Gaza, and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition — represent the largest civilian maritime challenge to this siege in history. Their deeper goal is to forge a durable, global network of solidarity, connecting ports, unions, cities, and movements in an unbreakable chain alongside the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation.

In Italy, Freedom Flotilla Italia is playing a vital role. Its “100 Ports, 100 Cities” campaign, which departed from Taranto on May 2, combines the sailboat Ghassan Kanafani — named after the legendary Palestinian writer and revolutionary assassinated by Mossad in 1972 — with a mobile caravan that travels from port to inland towns. As the organizers state, the mission is “to build a solid and lasting network to stand alongside the Palestinian people and put the liberation of Palestine at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the world powers that enrich themselves through war and unrestrained capitalism at the expense of all of us.” It is also raising essential funds for the besieged Al Awda Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in Gaza.

The latest act of piracy has triggered widespread outrage. Saif Abu Keshek, recently released after his previous abduction, was in Rome this week joining protests against this new assault. The courage of the Flotilla activists has only fueled the movement. The story has dominated front pages in Italy and made international headlines, with global leaders, human rights organizations, and ordinary citizens denouncing Israel’s behaviour as a flagrant violation of international law. Yet, as always, condemnation has not translated into concrete action.

This week’s events lay bare Zionism’s essence: a European settler-colonial project, an ethno-supremacist enclave built on stolen land and sustained by relentless violence. Palestinians are the indigenous Semitic people of the region. The European colonizers are not. “Make Israel Palestine Again” is not revenge — it is justice and decolonization.

The moral bankruptcy of the West stands fully exposed. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas offers empty rhetoric about supporting Palestine while the bloc continues weapons supplies and uninterrupted economic cooperation with Israel. Italy under Meloni — whose government carries the living DNA of Italian fascism — and Germany — a country with Nazism still in its blood, now expressed through brutal repression of Palestinian solidarity activists and blind support for Zionism — were instrumental in blocking any serious EU sanctions on the Zionist entity. Their complicity is criminal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s grotesque “Board of Peace” — a cabal of Zionist speculators and evangelical extremists — fantasizes about turning Gaza’s ruins into a luxury Riviera while Palestinians still die under bombs and blockade. This is gangster capitalism at its most depraved.

Despite Israel’s hundreds of millions poured into hasbara propaganda, the mask has fallen. The sadistic reality of Zionism — apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide — is now visible to millions all around the world. The more Israel lashes out in arrogance and brutality, the faster the global awakening spreads. People across the world are connecting the dots: this is not self-defense, but the death throes of a colonial project that can no longer hide its true nature.

The flotillas sail on, in body or in spirit. The resistance at sea continues. The resistance on land must intensify.

Break the siege. End the genocide. Make Israel Palestine Again. Free Palestine!

Michael Leonardi lives in Italy and can be reached at michaeleleonardi@gmail.com

Gaza flotilla activists await deportation from Israel

By AFP
May 21, 2026


Israeli activist Zohar Chamberlain Regev is among dozens of people detained since the interception of the flotilla - Copyright AFP -

Hiba ASLAN

Hundreds of activists seized by Israel from a Gaza-bound flotilla were awaiting deportation on Thursday, as global outcry grows over their treatment in custody.

More than 430 activists from countries around the world were in custody in Israel after they were detained at sea while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked condemnation on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground.

Captioned “Welcome to Israel”, the footage showed Ben Gvir heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists.

On Thursday, the legal centre representing the activists said the flotilla members were “en route for deportation” from Ramon Airport in Israel’s far south.

“The majority of the participants are being transferred to Ramon Airport to be flown out of the country,” Adalah said in a statement, adding that the activists had been held at Israel’s Ktziot prison, in the Negev Desert near Gaza.

Around 50 vessels under the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month.



– ‘They kicked us’ –



Adalah said one of the flotilla participants who holds Israeli citizenship had a court hearing Thursday, and faced “absurd” charges.

“Israeli authorities are holding her under unfounded and contradictory accusations of ‘illegal entry into Israel’, ‘unlawful stay’, and for an attempt to break the blockade on Gaza,” Adalah said.

Adalah’s legal director Suhad Bishara told AFP Wednesday that the group’s lawyers had been able to give legal counsel to “many” of the hundreds of activists, though she added that others had faced court hearings without legal assistance.

“We know of at least two participants who were hospitalised… both of them were shot by rubber bullets,” Bishara said, adding that others said they feared they had broken ribs.

Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters upon landing in Rome’s Fiumicino airport Thursday that he and others had been “taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens”.

“They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’,” he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.

Dario Carotenuto, an Italian MP who was also detained and deported said: “It was really tough… They called us by number… with rifles pointed at us… I think those were the longest seconds in my life.”

The video posted by Ben Gvir sparked resounding condemnation by governments around the world, from Italy to Spain and Australia to Canada.

He was also criticised at home by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, as well as by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who denounced what he called “despicable actions”.

Francesca Albanese, an outspoken UN expert on the Palestinian territories, called on Italy, where she is from, to take action.

“Words do not suffice: let Italy stop opposing the suspension” of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, she wrote on X.



– Fragile truce –



Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, under blockade since 2007.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began with the Palestinian militant group’s attack on October 7, 2023, the vast majority of Gaza’s population has become aid-dependent and forcibly displaced at least one.

While a fragile ceasefire took hold in the territory last year, Gaza still suffers severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential supplies, with Israel at times halting aid deliveries entirely.

A previous flotilla attempt was intercepted last month in international waters off Greece, with most activists expelled to Europe.

Two were brought to Israel, detained for several days and then deported.