Austin activist Greg Stoker is back in Austin after a dayslong detention in an Israeli prison for protesting the war in Gaza.
Stoker was detained last Thursday for taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian-organized effort to deliver aid to Gazans and break Israel’s naval blockade on Palestine.
The activist and former Army Ranger was released this week, with longtime Congressman Lloyd Doggett pulling some strings to secure his release from an Israeli prison.
A crowd of more than 60 demonstrators greeted Stoker at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, chanting “Greg, you make us proud!” as he exited on Tuesday night.
“I can be an inspiration, I guess, but I definitely don't want to be called a hero,” he said. “There are people that are actually doing the work there in Palestine and can't get out and can't escape and are killed every day.”
Asked if his mission was a success, he said it played out like he thought it would. Stoker said he figured his boat would get intercepted by Israeli forces and that he would be detained, but he says the flotilla made geopolitical waves that he didn’t expect.
“We proved that, you know, these grassroots free association organizations and movements can actually shape geopolitics," he said.
Stoker's return came on the second anniversary of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and led to more than 250 abductions. Last week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the flotilla had ties to Hamas, but the group has denied that claim.
Turkey, Spain and Italy all provided some form of military support for the flotilla as it neared Gaza. Some of that came after the boat carrying Stoker, the Ohwayla, was the target of two Israeli drone attacks that dropped small explosive devices on the deck. Stoker says that involvement – and the flotilla’s constant presence on social media – made a harsher crackdown on demonstrators “politically untenable” for the Israeli government.
“They tested the waters a couple of times … to see what they could get away with,” he said. “But, you know, we won the comms war and we won the political battle behind the scenes.”
Stoker is one of more than 400 detained activists, including Greta Thunberg and European members of parliament.
Stateside, Stoker said he hoped the demonstration inspired American citizens “who have been completely normalized to violence” in the Middle East to see that that could happen here. He pointed to recent crackdowns on undocumented migrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the recent deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities.
“[They] feel that it doesn't affect them,” he said. “Well, it absolutely does.”
