The Flotilla's Got Moves. And a Sex Predator to Defend.

By GM |  | Reporting based on original NY Post coverage by Ronny Reyes

The Gaza flotilla movement would like you to know it stands for human rights. Women's rights. Dignity. Justice. The liberation of an oppressed people from the boot of colonial genocide, or however they are phrasing it this week. They would like you to believe all of that while watching two activists in keffiyehs dance half naked on a ship in the Mediterranean to demand the release of a man accused of sexually assaulting three of his own colleagues. The movement contains multitudes.

The video went viral this week because of course it did. Spanish-Korean activist Mi Hoa La, filmed near the Greek island of Crete aboard one of the flotilla vessels, performed what can only be described as a politically motivated belly dance with a Palestinian flag wrapped around her hips. The flag then unfolded to reveal the words "Free Saif" and "Free Thiago." In case you are new to this particular circus, Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila are two flotilla leaders currently sitting in Israeli custody after the Israeli Navy intercepted their ships last week.

Ávila, the Brazilian activist, is accused of sexual misconduct with three volunteers on the flotilla itself. He also reportedly has ties to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which the United States government says is operating as a front for Hamas. So to summarize: the women dancing provocatively to free their leader are dancing for a man accused of preying on women in the same movement they belong to.  

The Irony Is Doing Heavy Lifting

Heidi Bachram, whose husband was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas, watched the video and responded with the kind of clarity that only comes from someone who has no patience left for nonsense. "I would say that dancing provocatively half naked on the flotilla for the male leader accused of sexual misconduct probably isn't helping either," she wrote on X.

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That is what passes for understatement in 2026.Emily Schrader, founder of the Iran Israel Alliance, was marginally less restrained. "Flotilla activists film themselves dancing sexually, calling for the release of 2 suspects arrested by Israeli security for ties to terror groups," she noted. "I think we should let them into Gaza to perform their pro-Hamas dance. I'm sure it'll end very well."What makes this particular episode so perfectly grotesque is that the flotilla movement has spent years wrapping itself in the language of feminist solidarity.

These are people who will lecture you for hours about patriarchy and consent and the dignity of women under occupation. They have signs for it. They have social media infographics. And then the moment their leader gets accused of violating three of those same women, the response is to send out the dancers. This is the movement that wants you to take it seriously on human rights.

The Hamas Connection Nobody Wants to Talk About

Set aside the dancing for a moment, because the more important story here is who these two men actually are and why Israel arrested them.

Both Ávila and Keshek are accused by Israeli authorities of ties to the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad. This is not an obscure designation. The United States government has stated that this organization is "clandestinely acting on behalf of" Hamas. The same Hamas that massacred 1,200 people on October 7th, 2023. The same Hamas whose October 7th anniversary Pal-Awda NY/NJ celebrated on social media while planning their next trip to a Manhattan synagogue.

The Brazilian and Spanish governments have responded to their citizens' arrests by accusing Israel of kidnapping and unlawful abduction, calling the whole thing an affront to international law. This is the predictable diplomatic reflex of governments that need to be seen defending their nationals regardless of what those nationals were actually doing. It does not change the underlying facts, which are that two men with alleged Hamas connections were on ships trying to break an Israeli naval blockade and are now in Israeli custody explaining themselves.The flotilla's colleagues insist the men are being tortured and beaten in prison. They offer no evidence for this. They do, however, offer choreography.

What This Movement Is Actually About

Here is the thing about the Gaza flotilla operation that the mainstream coverage keeps dancing around, no pun intended. This is not a humanitarian mission. Humanitarian missions do not require people with Hamas organizational ties in leadership positions. They do not require confrontations with naval blockades. They do not hold press conferences demanding the release of men accused of sexually assaulting their own volunteers while simultaneously insisting they represent the moral conscience of the world.

What the flotilla represents is a very particular kind of political performance, one where the optics of resistance matter more than the actual wellbeing of anyone involved, Palestinian or otherwise. If the goal were to get food and medicine into Gaza, there are legal channels for that. International organizations do it regularly. The flotilla does not use those channels because the point was never purely the aid. The point is the confrontation, the footage, the narrative of Israeli aggression against brave humanitarians. And now the footage they have produced is two women in keffiyehs performing a flag dance for an accused sex offender with Hamas ties while anchored off Crete.

The Jewish community watching all of this from New York and Tel Aviv and everywhere else has a simple question. The same question they have been asking since October 7th, through every protest and every flotilla and every mob outside every synagogue. At what point does the world look at this movement, really look at it, and ask what it is actually defending?So far, the answer appears to be: not yet. But keep dancing. Someone is always watching.

Original reporting by Ronny Reyes, New York Post, May 5, 2026.